Up to 380m eggs across the USA are being recalled by a producer after hundreds of people fell ill with Salmonella poisoning.
Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, started the voluntary recall last Friday(13 August) withdrawing 228m eggs from sale after testing revealed salmonella inside their shells and on their surface.
The testing came after an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration following a spike in cases of S enteritidis in California, Minnesota and Colorado.
On Wednesday (18 August) the company broadened its recall announcing a further 152m eggs would be pulled from shelves due to contamination fears, according to the New York Times.
In total 13 brands of eggs across the states of California, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa are being recalled with the likelihood more contaminated eggs could have been distributed nationwide.
This massive recall comes at the same time as food safety is high on the agenda of the Federal Government with it trying to pass the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act which it hopes will lift food safety standards.
On 9 July the FDA implemented its own regulations to improve food safety regarding Salmonella in eggs which it estimates causes 79,000 illness and 30 deaths in the USA each year. Under the new regulations producers must enforce biosecurity measures on farms to prevent Salmonella cross contamination by workers or equipment, control rodents, establish testing regimes for laying houses and eggs and monitor storage temperatures.
The rules only apply to egg producers with 50,000 or more laying hens and will be expanded to included producers with from 3000 to 50,000 from July 2012.
At the moment all eggs from Wright County Eggs are being sold to an egg breaker for use in food manufacture where they will be pasteurised, killing the Salmonella bacteria, before use.
