USDA explains delay in recall of ground turkey

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The first sickness was in March and the first signs of a salmonella outbreak appeared in May. Two months later, investigators linked the outbreak to ground turkey and a Cargill meat processing plant in Arkansas.

On Wednesday, almost five months after the first illness, the Agriculture Department asked Minnesota-based Cargill to recall 36 million pounds of ground turkey, saying the meat was linked to a death in California and at least 77 illnesses.

Tracking down the source of an illness is a difficult, complicated business, and federal officials defended the months-long process Thursday by saying they wanted to be absolutely sure before they asked Cargill to initiate the third-largest meat recall in history.

“There was an aggressive and thorough investigation that came together over time to paint one picture of this outbreak,” said Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which investigated the outbreak with the Agriculture Department.

Investigations often are delayed because victims can’t remember what they ate or aren’t cooperative, says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But DeWaal says she believes the government should have told the company — and the public — about the possible outbreak much sooner.

“Clearly, this kind of delay in an outbreak situation is one that puts the public health at risk,” DeWaal said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a longtime advocate for stronger food- safety laws, sent Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and CDC Director Thomas Frieden a letter Thursday questioning why it took so long to announce the recall.

“It is simply unacceptable that after more than four months of illnesses and more than 10 weeks of investigation by both the CDC and the USDA, we have so few answers to the obvious questions surrounding this outbreak,” DeLauro wrote.