Hygiene Dept inspects store
shelves for recalled pizzas
PHILIPSBURG--The Veterinary and Hygiene Department began an inspection of supermarkets and grocery stores over the weekend for the recalled batches of pizzas bearing the Totino’s and Jeno’s labels.
The inspection follows a General Mills recall of about five million frozen pizzas bearing the Totino’s and Jeno’s labels because of possible E. coli contamination.
The Hygiene and Veterinary Departments said none of the recalled pizzas had been found at any of the small supermarkets or grocery stores and the larger supermarkets had already been in the process of taking the brands off their shelves.
In a press release issued by the Government Information Service (GIS), the Department encouraged persons who had purchased the pizzas not to consume them.
“Persons who have eaten the pizza and have developed severe bloody diarrhoea and abdominal cramps should immediately contact their general practitioner,” the release stated.
“E. coli is leading cause of food-borne illness. Infection with E. coli often leads to bloody diarrhoea and occasionally to kidney failure. People generally become ill from E. coli two to eight days after being exposed to the bacteria,” it was stated in the GIS release.
Prime Distributors, which distribute both brands, had told this newspaper late last week that it had only received the notification on Friday and would check to see whether the specific recalled items were among the products it imported.
Recalled are Totino’s Party Supreme with serial numbers 42800-10700; Totino’s Three Meat, 42800-10800; Totino’s Pepperoni, 42800-11400; Totino’s Pepperoni, 42800-92114; Totino’s Classic Pepperoni, 42800-11402; Totino’s Pepperoni Trio, 42800-72157; Totino’s Party Combo, 42800-11600; Totino’s Combo, 42800-92116; Jeno’s Crisp ’n Tasty Supreme, 35300-00561; Jeno’s Crisp ’n Tasty Pepperoni, 35300-00572 and Jeno’s Crisp ’n Tasty Combo, 35300-00576.
An Associated Press article published on November 1 quoted the suburban Minneapolis-based company as saying that the recall might have stemmed from pepperoni on pizzas produced at a General Mills plant in Ohio. The company said the pepperoni itself came from a separate supplier and was not produced at the General Mills plant.
GIS said the Tennessee State Department of Health and the US Center for Disease Control were collaborating with public health officials in many US states and the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to investigate an ongoing multi-state outbreak of E. coli infections in humans.
A study showed that eating frozen pizza containing pepperoni produced by the General Mills Company under the brand names of Totino’s or Jeno’s was the likely source of the illness.
The voluntary recall covers pizzas containing pepperoni that have been produced since July, when the first of 21 E. coli illnesses under investigation by US state and federal authorities emerged.
Nine of the 21 people reported eating Totino’s or Jeno’s pizza with pepperoni topping at some point before becoming ill. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said eight of the victims had been hospitalised and four had developed a type of kidney failure.
Eight of the cases were reported in Tennessee, with the other cases found in smaller numbers in Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin and South Dakota.
A replacement can be obtained by clipping the bar code from the box and mailing it with one’s name and address to Totino’s/Jeno’s, P.O. Box 200 – Pizza, Minneapolis, MN 55440-0200.
