Don’t gobble that turkey: Cargill recalls ground meat amid salmonella outbreak
International food producer Cargill is recalling 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey produced between Feb. 20 and Aug. 2 after being linked to a drug-resistant Salmonella outbreak resulting in 76 illnesses and one death in 26 states, according to a Cargill news release.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been conducting an investigation into potential links to the Salmonella Heidelberg cases for some time, according to Cargill, but the company decided to act on information released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ground turkey cultures from four locations taken between March 7 and June 27 showed they were contaminated with the same strain of salmonella, according to the CDC -- although those samples were not specifically linked to the rash of illnesses.
Food poisoning sickens 50 million Americans a year and results in the deaths of 3,000, according to the CDC.
Read the full story, and take some tips from health writer Shari Roan on how to handle uncooked ground turkey.
Follow me on Twitter @LAT_aminakhan.
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