Labor Day party? Steps to avoid recalled or contaminated food

Going into Labor Day weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of people who have become sick or died in connection with unsafe meat and poultry has increased dramatically in the last few weeks. Officials are concerned because some of the products have sell by dates of October 2024 and may still be in people’s homes.

The problem started with Boar’s Head brand liverwurst contaminated with Listeria and then expanded to other meats sliced at delis, including 71 products under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. Products affected include ham, salami, beef franks, bologna and bacon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture  said. The recall started with about 200,000 pounds of meat and expanded to 7 million pounds, the USDA said. Listeria spreads easily to foods that are stored together, touch each other or come in contact with the same utensils or surfaces.

As of Aug. 28, the outbreak has sickened 57 people (14 new cases since Aug. 10,) hospitalized 57 (14 new cases,) killed nine people (six new deaths) and affected 18 states (five new ones.) Listeria is among the bacteria that can be killed with heating to high temperatures, but not in other ways. Most of us don’t cook our lunch meat.

Listeria and other food contamination are most risky to people who are elderly, pregnant women, young children or anyone with a compromised immune systems or other serious heath problems.

The concern about deli meat follows several other higher profile food recalls this year, including:

• Two cucumber recalls because of salmonella and listeria, (551 sick, 155 hospitalized in 34 states.)
• Cinnamon contaminated with lead. (The FDA has issued four separate alerts this year about various products.)
• More than 167,000 pounds of Perdue Foods frozen, ready-to-eat chicken nuggets and tenders because they may contain metal wire.
• Great Value apple juice contaminated with arsenic.
• A stimulant snack from Diamond Shruumz tainted with a mushroom derivative. Affected are 22 products sold at more than 2,000 stores nationwide. (145 sick, 59 hospitalized, two dead across 29 states.)

You can request real-time push alerts to your phone, or just check the app recall list as often as you’d like if you don’t like notifications. You can choose just serious microbe recalls such as Listeria, Salmonella, E. Coli or Norovirus, or just ones for pets, or all of them. (We wish you could choose only allergens, which make up more than 40% of all recalls.)