An Indiana-based food manufacturer is recalling more than 59,000 pounds of chicken products that may be contaminated with Salmonella enteritidis, federal health officials said this week.
In a food safety alert issued on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is investigating a salmonella outbreak linked to the recalled products. “The outbreak strain of salmonella was found in unopened packages of raw frozen breaded stuffed chicken that were collected from a sick person’s home,” the C.D.C. said in the statement.
As of Tuesday, at least 28 people in eight states have gotten sick in the outbreak, according to the C.D.C. Eleven of those people were hospitalized, it said.
The frozen, raw and breaded chicken products were produced on Feb. 24 and 25 by Serenade Foods, based in Milford, Ind., and shipped across the country, according to a statement on Monday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
A telephone message left for Serenade Foods on Wednesday evening was not immediately responded to.
The recalled products have “P-2375” inside the U.S.D.A. mark of inspection, according to the statement. The recalled products include five-ounce packages of Dutch Farms chicken with broccoli and cheese; Milford Valley chicken with broccoli & cheese; Kirkwood raw stuffed chicken, broccoli and cheese; Kirkwood raw stuffed chicken Cordon Bleu; and 10-ounce packages of Milford Valley chicken Cordon Bleu, according to the statement.
“Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them,” the department said in a statement. The items should be thrown away or returned, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said in the statement.
Nine people in the outbreak are in Illinois, seven are in New York, and the rest are in Minnesota, Indiana, Nevada, Michigan, Connecticut, and Arizona, according to the C.D.C. “Investigators are working to determine if there are additional products that may be linked to illness,” it said.