The United States has recalled over two million eggs due to salmonella contamination fears.
The recall, announced on Friday by the United States Food and Drug Administration, affects items shipped in nine states and is linked to many grocery store chains.
According to the FDA, the California-based August Egg Company of Hilmar is recalling 1,700,000 dozen brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs owing to a possible contamination.
The eggs were distributed from February 3 to May 15, with sell-by dates ranging from March 4 to June 4, in California and Nevada.
Products were sent to Save Mart, FoodMaxx, Lucky, Smart & Final, Safeway, Raleys, Food 4 Less, and Ralphs.
From February 3 to May 6, eggs with sell-by dates ranging from March 4 to June 19 were sent to Walmart outlets in California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, Indiana, and Illinois.
The recalled eggs will have the plant code number P-6562 or CA5330 stamped on the carton or box, as well as Julian dates ranging from 32 to 126. The recalled retail eggs will be packaged in fiber or plastic cartons with the codes listed above printed on one side.
According to the FDA, Salmonella can cause serious and even deadly illnesses in young children, the frail or old, and others with compromised immune systems.
Healthy people infected with Salmonella frequently develop fever, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and occasionally bloody diarrhea.
In rare cases, Salmonella infection might cause more severe illness.
August Egg Company stated, “It is important to know that when our processing plant identified this concern, we immediately began diverting all eggs from the plant to an egg-breaking facility, where the eggs are pasteurized and any pathogens are killed.”
“August Egg Company’s internal food safety team is also undertaking a thorough study to see what steps may be taken to avoid this incident from reoccurring.
“We are committed to addressing this matter fully and to implementing all necessary corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again.”
