SHOPPERS have been issued a major health warning as millions of eggs have been recalled across several states.
The August Egg Company, a supplier to major retailers such as Walmart and Safeway, has removed 1.7 million eggs from circulation due to a potential life-threatening health concern.
The warning for consumers was issued on Friday when the company identified a significant health issue involving their brown cage-free and certified organic brown eggs.
The recall impacting nine states comes as officials fear potential Salmonella poisoning which can be fatal.
The FDA issued an update stating that the company’s eggs have been linked to a “multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections”.
August Egg Company, based in California, sells its eggs to both retailers and restaurants and uses a number of different brand names.
The brands include: Clover, First Street, Nulaid, O Organics, Marketside, Raleys, Simple Truth, Sun Harvest, and Sunnyside.
Authorities have reported that certain affected eggs were shipped to California and Nevada between February 3 and May 15, carrying sell-by dates ranging from March 4 to June 4.
These will have gone to retailers like Save Mart, Safeway, Smart & Final, Raleys, Food 4 Less, Ralphs and FoodMaxx.
Another batch of contaminated eggs were sent out between February 3 and May 6 with sell by dates of March 4 and June 19 to a number of Walmart locations across several states.
While all affected batches have now been pulled from shelves, shoppers are being urged to check their egg boxes to see if they are part of the recall.
A full list of the recalled batches can be found here – they are all identified by their plant code numbers and Julian dates.
These can be found printed on the packaging.
Full refunds are available from the places of purchase.
The following states have all been included in the recall, though the FDA warns more could be affected:
- Arizona
- California
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- Washington
- Wyoming
At least 79 people have been sickened with Salmonella between February 24 and May 17 with 21 hospitalizations.
The majority of these cases were reported in California.
Illness usually begins between 12 and 72 hours after eating a contaminated product.
On average, symptoms last between four and seven days.
But children, those with weakened immune systems, and the elderly are all at a higher risk of more severe infections if they come into contact with Salmonella.
Symptoms include but are not limited to: Diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.
August Egg Company statement
August Egg Company of Hilmar, CA is voluntarily recalling 1,700,000 dozen shell eggs processed at our California plant and sold to various grocery customers.
This recall has been initiated due to possible Salmonella enteritidis contamination, which poses a health risk.
With that in mind, we believe it is appropriate out of an abundance of caution to conduct this voluntary recall, as consumers may still have these eggs in their homes.
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, which pasteurizes the eggs and kills any pathogens.
August Egg Company’s internal food safety team also is conducting its own stringent review to identify what measures can be established to prevent this situation from recurring.
We are committed to addressing this matter fully and to implementing all necessary corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again.
