Pregnancy, Listeria and The Maple Leaf Foods Recall
This week Maple Leaf Consumer Foods and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency voluntarily expanded a recall of certain ready-to-eat packaged meat products. The CFIA is warning people not to serve or consume the products as they may contain Listeria monocytogenes.
A full list of the recalled meat and expiry dates is listed below.
While Listeria can paralyze a healthy person's system, it is an especially serious disease when pregnant women, the elderly or individuals with a weakened immune system contract it. In serious cases it can lead to brain infection and even death.
Pregnant women are about 20 times more likely to get listeriosis than other healthy adults. If a pregnant woman develops listeriosis during the first three months of her pregnancy, she may miscarry. Up to two weeks before a miscarriage, pregnant women may experience a mild flu-like illness with chills, fatigue, headache as well as muscular and joint pain. Listeriosis later on in the pregnancy can result in a stillbirth or the birth of an acutely-ill child.Scary facts:
- Listeria is widespread in the environment - found in soil, vegetation, water, sewage, silage and in the faeces of humans and animals.
- Animals and humans can carry the bacterium without knowing it.
- Moreover, foods that are contaminated with this bacterium look, smell and taste normal.
- Listeria can be killed by proper cooking procedures.
- Listeria is more likely to cause death than other bacteria that cause food poisoning. In fact, 20 to 30 percent of foodborne listeriosis infections in high-risk individuals may be fatal.
- Vomiting
- Nausea
- Cramps
- Diarrhea
- Severe Headache
- Constipation or
- Persistent fever.
*In some instances, these symptoms may be followed by meningitis encephalitis (an infection of the brain or its surrounding tissues) and/or septicemia (blood poisoning), either of which can result in death.*
Minimizing your risk:
- Read and follow all package labels and instructions on food preparation and storage.
- After handling foods in the kitchen, especially raw foods such as meat and fish, thoroughly clean and sanitize all surfaces used for food preparation with a kitchen sanitizer (following the directions on the container) or use a bleach solution (5 ml household bleach to 750 ml of water), and rinse with water.
- To avoid cross-contamination, clean all knives, cutting boards and utensils used with raw food before using them again.
- Thoroughly clean fruits and vegetables before you eat them.
- Refrigerate or freeze perishable food, prepared food and leftovers within two hours.
- Defrost food in the refrigerator, in cold water or in the microwave, but never at room temperature.
- Keep leftovers for a maximum of four days only and reheat them to an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F) before eating them.
- Check the temperature in your refrigerator using a thermometer to make sure it is at 4°C (40°F) or below. As the storage temperature increases, so does the growth of Listeria in foods. The higher the number of bacteria in foods, the greater is the risk of getting sick.
- Frequently wash and disinfect the refrigerator. The more often it is cleaned, the less chance there will be for Listeria to be transferred from contaminated food and surfaces to non-contaminated foods.
Product Code | Description | Package Size | Up to and including Best Before Date |
---|---|---|---|
26365 | Sliced Cooked Turkey Breast | 470 g | SE 30 |
02106 | Schneiders Bavarian Smokies | 1 kg | OC 28 |
02126 | Schneiders Cheddar Smokies | 1 kg | OC 28 |
21333 | Sure Slice Roast Beef | 1 kg | SE 30 |
21388 | Sure Slice Combo Pack | 1 kg | SE 30 |
60243 | Deli Gourmet Roast Beef slices | 1 kg | SE 30 |
02356 | Seasoned Cooked Roast Beef | 500 g | OC 07 |
42706 | Roast Beef, Seasoned and Cooked | 500 g | OC 07 |
21334 | Sure Slice Turkey Breast Roast | 1 kg | OC 14 |
21444 | Sure Slice Corned Beef | 1 kg | OC 14 |
44938 | Montreal Style Corned Beef | 500 g | OC 14 |
21440 | Sure Slice Black Forest Style Ham | 1 kg | OC 21 |
21447 | Sure Slice Salami | 1 kg | OC 21 |
21331 | Sure Slice Smoked Ham | 1 kg | OC 21 |
48019 | Schneiders Deli Shaved Corned Beef | 200 g | OC 21 |
48020 | Schneiders Deli Shaved Smoked Meat | 200 g | OC 21 |
48016 | Schneiders Deli Shaved Smoked Ham | 200 g | OC 21 |
48018 | Schneiders Deli Shaved Smoked Turkey Breast | 150 g | OC 21 |
48017 | Schneiders Deli Shaved Fully Cooked Smoked Honey Ham | 200 g | OC 21 |
21360 | Burns Bites Pepperoni | 500 g | 09 JA 01 |
99158 | Turkey Breast Roast | 1 kg | SE 30 |
71330 | Roast Beef Cooked, Seasoned | 2.5 kg | SE 30 |
71331 | Corned Beef, Smoked Meat | 2.5 kg | SE 30 |
SOURCE Thank you to GYB reader Susie!!
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