USDA expands recall of 10 million pounds of chicken and beef over listeria fears

A nationwide recall of 10 million pounds of chicken and beef over listeria fears has been expanded by another 1.7 million pounds – with federal officials citing possible contamination of meat delivered to school cafeterias.

Making matters worse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's announcement late Tuesday – which raises the size of the recall to a staggering 11.7 million pounds – did not include a list of potentially affected schools.

“A school distribution list is not available at this time,” the USDA said in a statement on its website about the recall tied to Oklahoma-based meat processing giant BrucePac.

A source close to the agency said the expansion of the recall was not just due to the addition of schools. The USDA also expanded the recall's production window to meat already produced as of May 31, up from the previous start date of June 19, the source said. The window lasts until October 8th.

A USDA spokesman said the agency is compiling a list of potentially affected school districts.

The warning leaves parents in the dark as the USDA struggles to respond to a second massive listeria recall in just a few months.

“The USDA wants to be safe (even if) it scares the public,” James Marsden, a food safety consultant and former adviser to the agency, told The Post.

The expansion of the recall to schools — and the lack of information — may be related to the lack of good records at Durant, Oklahoma-based BrucePac, according to Marsden.

“A recall typically starts small and then escalates because the company does not have the necessary documentation to demonstrate that the product should be excluded from the recall,” Marsden said.

The school risk disclosure follows confusion last week after the USDA announced the 10 million pound recall without specifying which brands and retailers were affected, instead releasing a list of product codes and abbreviations that would be difficult for buyers to understand. were, if not impossible, to understand.

This week, the USDA updated the list to clarify that at-risk products include frozen meals and fresh salads from Walmart, Target, Trader Joe's and major grocery chains such as Kroger and Publix, according to U.S. regulators.

Typically, food products leaving a factory have barcodes on the packaging that indicate which production line the food was made on, the time and date, and where it was subsequently taken, experts said.

The BrucePac recall has not resulted in any known illnesses. “But there could be illnesses in multiple states, and health authorities have not yet clarified the epidemiological links,” said Bill Marler, a food safety attorney.

According to food safety experts, listeria has an incubation period of three to 70 days and can cause miscarriage even if a pregnant woman has a mild case of listeria.

In the BrucePac situation, consumers may have some of the potentially contaminated product sitting in their refrigerators and freezers because many of the packaged foods were frozen meals and ready-made salads.

A reassuring fact, Marsden pointed out, is that while listeria can survive in frozen foods, heating the meal in many cases kills the bacteria.

Meanwhile, the USDA is conducting an internal investigation into its handling of Boar's Head — which resulted in dozens of violations of inspection reports over a few years — and the Office of the Inspector General is also conducting an investigation into the agency, Boar's Head confirmed Tuesday.

“The USDA is acting very cautiously,” Marsden said. “They're under the microscope and under a lot of pressure to get it right because of Boar's Head.”

More than seven million pounds of Boar's Head product was pulled from stores in July after 10 people died and dozens were hospitalized due to listeria in the cold cuts.