Chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salads and spreads sold at Coburn’s, Cash Wise and Marketplace Foods stores in MN, WI, ND and SD are being recalled for potential Listeria contamination. Please see the complete list of recalled products on the Coburn’s recall posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) website. At the time of the recall, there had been no confirmed reports of illness, the company stated. However, consumers who have purchased these sandwiches should not eat them as Listeria can cause serious illness and death.
Coburn’s Inc. issued the recall on October 2, after being notified that its chicken supplier, Tip Top Poultry, was recalling all of the chicken it produced between January 21, 2019, and September 24, 2019. The massive Tip Top Poultry Listeria recall was issued after Canadian health officials notified the company that several of its products had tested positive for Listeria.
Since this summer, Canadian health officials have been investigating a Listeria outbreak linked to Rosemount brand cooked, diced chicken that was sold to cafeterias, hospitals and nursing homes. During their investigation of this outbreak, they have collected and tested other cooked chicken products and found a number of samples that tested positive for Listeria.
In Canada, seven illnesses have been reported; five in Ontario and one each in British Columbia and Manitoba, according to an October 2 outbreak update from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Genetic tests on the Listeria strain cultured from Canadian patients showed that they were all sickened by the same strain meaning they were all exposed to the same contaminated food. And the strain closely resembles a Listeria strain associated with an ongoing Listeria outbreak in the United States that has sickened 24 people two of whom have died.
Listeria is a foodborne bacteria that can cause serious illness and death. Among pregnant women, Listeria can cause miscarriage and stillbirth. Symptoms of an infection include high fever, severe headache, muscle stiffness, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea.