Another bacteria outbreak. This time listeria in Florida:
Friday, November 06, 1998
FSIS Halts Inspection at Troubled Dixie Packers Plant After Further Recall
by Ken Krizner
The Food Safety and Inspection Service suspended inspection at a Dixie Packers Inc. plant in Florida Wednesday after the company announced a recall of more than 192,000 pounds of lunch meat because of a potential threat from listeria, adding to two earlier product recalls from the company.
A plant in Tallahassee, Fla., will remain closed while management for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Dixie Packers evaluates and reassesses its production processes and controls, FSIS Deputy Administrator Margaret Glavin said. The action comes after Dixie Packers, which is owned by supermarket chain Winn-Dixie, voluntarily recalled more than 192,553 pounds of hot dogs and luncheon meat products in 14 states on Wednesday because of possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
It's the third listeria-motivated recall involving products from the Tallahassee plant in two weeks. Twice, on Oct. 23 and again last Friday, Dixie Packers announced recalls of hot dogs and franks because of potential listeria contamination.
The latest recall involves 192,553 products such as salami, beef bologna, cooked ham, head cheese, turkey bologna, turkey ham and wafer chicken.
Dixie Packers has recalled more than 1.5 million pounds of product during the past two weeks.
Management must provide FSIS with a corrective action plan to control processes at the plant before inspection is reinstated, Glavin said.
Winn-Dixie spokesman Mickey Clerc said the company is "committed to offering only safe food products." No illnesses have been reported from eating the products.
USDA originally discovered the problem after franks sampled from a Tallahassee, Fla., retail store tested positive for listeria last month. Further testing prompted expansions of the recall. |
