As if I needed a reason to want to expand my garden, put up my own food, and get some livestock, too, our personal food supply has been involved in two recalls this year. And, the year’s not over yet.
Since we have a Giant Eagle Advantage card and they track all of our purchases (kind of like a “Grocery Big Brother”), we were contacted directly both times. The first one occurred in the spring and was related to salmonella-tainted cucumbers. However, we had already consumed the cucumbers a few weeks prior to the call, so there wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it. Obviously we did not contract salmonella (or you would have heard about it here), so I guess you could call it a false alarm.
The second one occurred this week. Again, Giant Eagle contacted us about salmonella-tainted ground turkey. We consumed the turkey a month or two ago with no ill effects, so, again, no action is required on our part. I’ve always operated under the assumption that all turkey and chicken products contain salmonella, so I’m not sure how all of these people are getting sick from this. I mean, unless I’m missing something, proper food handling and preparation should prevent any illness from occurring when consuming poultry products. Still, it is a shame that we have to be concerned with the safety of our food supply.