Hey Dipy: The quality of food and water is important. They get contaminated anywhere in the world.
Next time, think, when you shove that hot dog in your mouth. It may be contaminated
Common man, you getting fed the same **** that you are laying on us.
Message 11680313
Hot Dogs Are Examined After 2 Deaths
Related Article
Warning About Hot Dogs (Oct. 14, 1999)
By KATHERINE E. FINKELSTEIN
search.nytimes.com
Food safety inspectors are exploring whether two recent deaths
were caused by contaminated frankfurters that were produced at a
Bronx processing plant, and the products have been recalled nationwide.
The hot dogs, marketed mainly under the Sabrett's and Western Beef
labels, may have been contaminated with listeria, a potentially fatal
food-borne bacteria, according to the Federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Some 2.1 million pounds of the frankfurters
made in the Bronx have been recalled by the company that produces
them, officials said.
There are no known cases of illness in New York, according to state
health officials. And Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, said: "This is all
evolving. I can't confirm whether any of the deaths are linked or not."
But in a national advisory to health officials, the federal agency said that it
was investigating whether two deaths, and five illnesses, were caused by
listeria from hot dogs made at the plant. The cases were reported in
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia and Rhode Island.
"The strain in the food product, and the strain in the patients, appears to
be the same," the advisory said.
While the Bronx plant produces Sabrett's and Western Beef hot dogs,
some wholesalers elsewhere repackage the product under different
names.
In Wisconsin, health officials said they had identified three recent cases of
listeria infection, including the death of an 83-year-old patient on Sept.
13, in which the disease strain matched that in the tainted hot dogs.
The New Jersey-based company that produces the frankfurters,
Marathon Enterprises Inc., released a statement that said, in part, "there
is absolutely no definitive evidence that any reported illnesses or deaths
are related to our products." It also said that the company took consumer
concerns seriously and would continue to cooperate with government
agencies.
Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium carried by animals, can contaminate
animal products like meat and milk, and it affects people with weakened
immune systems. It kills some 250 Americans a year out of the 1,100
who fall ill, according to data kept by the CDC. Symptoms include fever,
muscle aches and nausea, and the disease can lead pregnant women to
miscarry.
Some 52,000 pounds of the Sabrett and Western Beef hot dogs were
first recalled on Oct. 13, after a man in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.,
complained of feeling sweaty and weak after eating them.
In a market there, two packages of the skinless beef hot dogs tested
positive for the bacteria, and they carried the code of the Bronx plant,
8854.
On Oct. 14, company officials closed the Bronx plant. But further tests
by Marathon's own meat-safety inspectors revealed listeria in more of the
hot dogs, leading to an expanded recall on Oct. 26, company officials
said.
A Marathon spokeswoman said it was the first recall in the history of the
company, which sells more than 20 million pounds of hot dogs a year.
The recalled products, in 16-ounce and 5-pound packages, were sold to
wholesalers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina,
Florida and Georgia. The hot dogs from the company's two other plants
-- in Jersey City, N.J., and in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point --
are safe to eat, she said. They bear the codes 850 and 7879. |
