Cargill Urges Consumers to Beware of Recalled Items

Cargill Turkey Products is asking the help of the media to make consumers aware of its recalled turkey deli products produced at its Waco, Texas, facility.

Cargill Inc.’s home office is in Minnesota, but subsidiary Cargill Turkey Products is based in Springdale.

On Dec. 14, Cargill initiated a recall of 16.7 million pounds of ready-to-eat poultry products to safeguard against possible infection by Listeria monocytogenes.

On Dec. 19, Cargill chairman and CEO Warren Staley held a news conference to urge consumers to be aware of possible Cargill ready-to-eat turkey products that might still be in their homes.

“Cargill is a distributor of these products, and we cannot reach all retail outlets ourselves,” Staley said.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said 28 cases of listeriosis had been reported in 10 states since May, including four deaths and three miscarriages or stillbirths linked to the products under recall.

Fifteen cases have been reported in New York; three in Georgia; two each in Connecticut and Michigan; and one each in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

The CDC has not concluded that Cargill’s products were contaminated, but results from a preliminary investigation were enough to initiate the recall, according to Cargill spokesman Mark Klein.

Cargill acquired the Waco plant in 1998 from Plantation Foods.