CDC Issues Warning About Hard-Boiled Eggs Due to Listeria
The FDA warns that consuming foods contaminated with listeria can lead to a severe and even life-threatening illness called listeriosis.
An outbreak of listeria connected to hard-boiled eggs is being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The product in question are peeled hard-boiled eggs sold to restaurants and other food service operators.
A multistate outbreak of listeria connected to hard-boiled eggs produced by Almark Foods is currently being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
People in Florida, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas have gotten sick. According to the CDCTrusted Source, 4 people have been hospitalized so far, and there has been one death in Texas.
“Interviews with ill people and laboratory evidence indicate that bulk, fresh hard-boiled eggs produced by Almark Foods of Gainesville, Ga., are a likely source of this outbreak. These eggs were packaged in plastic pails and sold under various brand names nationwide to food service operators, including grocery stores and restaurants,” the CDC said in a statementTrusted Source.
Not a product you would find on store shelves
These are hard-boiled, peeled eggs that were packaged in plastic pails and sold nationwide to food service operators and restaurants.
A spokesperson for Almark told Healthline it’s important to remember that the eggs in question “are sold to restaurants and similar businesses in plastic pails. Consumers would not find the affected product on supermarket shelves. While it is a serious situation, people need to know that this isn’t a product they would be purchasing directly.”
In the outbreak announcement, the CDC referenced an inspection conducted at the Almark production plant that was performed by the FDA. That inspection was described in a warning letter sent by the FDA to Almark in July.
The letter says that the outbreak strain of listeria was found in two locations at the plant, one from a food contact surface and another from the peeling room floor.
According to the warning letterTrusted Source, “Based on FDA’s analytical results for the environmental sample collected during the inspection, we determined that your food products are adulterated within the meaning of section of Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C, in that they were prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health.”
In the same letter, the FDA warns that consuming foods contaminated with listeria can lead to a severe and even life-threatening illness called listeriosis.
The FDA added that this infection is a major public health concern due to “the severity of the disease, its high case-fatality rate, its long incubation time, and its tendency to affect individuals with underlying conditions.”