Step Away from the Potato Salad...

by Naomi Shulman, Posted Mar 5th 2010 @ 11:00AM

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It's the great potato blight of 2010: Supermarkets across ten Western states, including Hawaii and Alaska, are recalling two potato salad products, both containing red potatoes and dill. Safeway -- which also owns Vons, Carrs, and Pavilions -- volunteered to pull the salad from those stores' delis following another voluntary recall by the supplier, Reser's Fine Foods.

Teena Massingill, director of Safeway's corporate public affairs, spoke to Slashfood late yesterday. "Reser's recalled the product because it contained hydrolized vegetable protein (HVP) manufactured by Basic Food Flavors," Massingill explained. That ingredient had been identified by the FDA as containing salmonella.

Salmonella, of course, is no joke. The tenacious bacteria can cause miserable sickness in the healthiest of people, and for small children, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems, it can be lethal. The potato salads in question were on sale between January 16 and March 3, and were sold either by the pound or in pre-packaged containers labeled The Deli Counter.

The good news? No one has actually reported getting sick. The FDA intervened in the HVP recall before any illness had the chance to occur, Reser's reacted immediately, and Safeway, staying true to its name, has cleared its shelves of all the red potato-dill salad as a precautionary measure. If you have a container in your fridge: "Discard it," says Massingill. "Or return it to the store for a full refund." Meanwhile...tuna salad, anyone?

Filed Under: Health & Medical, News
Tags: potato salad recall, potato salad recall salmonella, safeway potato salad recall, salmonella, salmonella poisoning

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3-09-2010 @12:34AM Quatre Versus Heero said... Attention Slashfood: Your comment board is being inundated with spam again. I just now went to this comment board and you have 4 spam bots posting advertisements. This has actually cause irritation among other people who are trying to read other people's comments because they get lost in the sea of all this advertising. Can you please conduct maintence on your comment board and set it up so that your comment boards are spam-free? I am sure everyone would appreciate it.

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