Third Largest Meat Recall Targets Ground Turkey

August 4, 2011 Culinary Medicine, Health News 0 Comments

Federal officials urged people to check any ground turkey to make certain it is not among the product being recalled for salmonella.  Over 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey produced by Cargill is being recalled.  The turkey was processed in the plant between Feb 20 and August 2nd and is thought contaminated with the bacteria that is linked to one death and at least 78 severely ill individuals.

The turkey that was affected has codes on the packages that include “Est. P-963.”

The following Grocery Store brands repackaged this turkey, HEG, Safeway, Kroger, Randall’s, Tom Thumb, and Giant Eagle.

In addition brand names using the turkey were Fit & Active Lean Ground Turkey, Honeysuckle White, Natural Lean Ground Turkey, Shady Brook Farms Ground Turkey Burgers, and Spartan Ground Turkey.

Turkey was packaged under a number of different names

The salmonella from the patients is resistant to the common antibiotics and appears to be highly virulent. Nearly 40 percent of the people who became ill were hospitalized. Most of the cases were reported in the Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania – as well as cases in Texas and California).

People become ill 3 days after eating the contaminated product.  Symptoms include fevers, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. People who are being treated  with steroids, or anti-rejection medicine for transplants, those who have HIV/AIDS, or who have a weakened immune system (the very young and very old) are at particular high risk.

Editorial Comment:

Ground turkey is an excellent alternative to ground beef. However, it is far better if you make the ground turkey at home.  Get a meat grinder (or an attachment for a Kitchen Aid) and grind the turkey yourself.  Carefully handling the turkey (see the Sous Vide Video about turkey) cut the turkey into one inch pieces.  Have a pot of boiling water and drop the pieces into the water for one minute.  Fish them out then grind the turkey.

If you are not planning on using the turkey that day- place in a vacuum sealed bag and freeze until you are ready to use.

Grinding your own meat for safety is best

Homemade ground turkey will taste better, is more fresh, and far safer – as well as less expensive than what you can get from the store.

About the Author
You probably first saw Dr. Simpson on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than Petri dishes. After a career in surgery, his focus is to make sense of the madness, and bust myths. Dr. Simpson, an advocate of culinary medicine, believes in teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, author, cook, and doctor “in that order.” For media inquiries, please visit www.terrysimpson.com.