Giant Foods Issues Potato Product Recall - Bacterial Contamination Fears Spur Recall Order

[HopeHoops]

Source: WBAL via CNN

Giant Food and Stop & Shop have pulled 20 oz. bags of Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns, Simply Potatoes Homestyle Slices and Simply Potatoes Red Potato Wedges.
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The products may be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that can cause flu-like symptoms, such as high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. The bacteria can be very damaging for pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems.

Read more: http://www.wbaltv.com/cnn-news/18771991/detail.html

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[kestrel91316]

1. I prefer to process my own potatoes, thank you. And now I see why that has been

a wise decision over the decades.

I don't know why people think having every Tom, Dick, and Harry handle their food before they do is such a great idea. I guess "convenience" isn't much of a priority to me. Catching a deadly foodborne disease is pretty f---ing inconvenient, anyway.

[HopeHoops]

2. Yeah, those deadly foodborne diseases can pretty much ruin your entire day!

[luvspeas]

3. One upside of the economy....

I can't afford to pay $3 for a 12 oz. bag of potatoes when I can get a potato for a buck a pound. That shit is expensive and tastes like crap.

[NBachers]

4. I've got a good solution

[Mr. Hyde]

5. I am seriously getting tired of hearing about contaminated foods.

Can we start putting some people in prison for this shit? Pretty please Mr. President?

[phantom power]

8. We used to have an organization that helped prevent this shit.

It was called the FDA, but like all effective govt organizations, the GOP relentlessly gutted it while they sold fairy-tales about "wasteful govt spending" and "intrusive govt regulations" to the public who were eventually going to suffer food poisoning.

[mamameow]

11. gutted fda

you got that right, bush gutted the fda. these processing plants are checked once every few years now and no follow up is done when violations are found. listeria is not food poisoning like salmonella, it can kill. listeria is a killer. a good friend of mine bought luncheon meat in the lynchburg, va area, after eating it he developed severe flu like symptoms, before the doctors could diagnose, the listeria went to his brain, he went into coma and died. all this in a matter of days. the processor of the meat had not been follow up inspected from the first inspection when they found listeria, which was a few years earlier. read about listeria, as deadly as botulism.

[thereismore]

6. Just buy real potatoes and enjoy boiled. They taste great with salt, nothing else is hardly needed.

[4_TN_TITANS]

7. Irish Steak Night at my house...

Buy your own potatos, chuck them in the oven (foil optional), when done load 'em up with bacon, cheese, sour cream, butter, etc.

If you bake them without foil, they even taste good plain. The skin will taste like potato chips. Potatos are the perfect depression food.

[HereSince1628]

12. I'd stretch great cheap food to include Sweet Potatoes and Collard

Cabbage is a cost effective base also, can't imaging going through the recession without cabbage soup.

[mamameow]

13. missed the point

you all have missed the point. listeria should never be found in our food. does not matter that it is processed. how safe is your canned food? ever wonder? maybe the heat kills the contamination but who wants to eat anything with rat feces!!! the fda allows so many particles of contaminates, per case or some kind of measurement. i know this from a family member who worked as inspector of canned foods. so many pieces of rat feces, so many pieces of rodent hair, etc. get the picture? the fda's excuse was the expense, our expense to have uncontaminated food.

[Kali]

16. All food is a natural product. It comes with some level of contaminates.

Even if you try to grow hydroponically in a sterile greenhouse you are going to get some level of unwanted "stuff". I'll take a few rodent hairs or insect parts over serious disease organisms, though.

No matter how good the inspection process is you ain't ever going to achieve 100%. Not saying it can't be improved, but it's still gonna happen.

[tooeyeten]

9. don't buy processed food

get back to the basics, and cut out the middleman.

[RavensChick]

10. Exactly!

Do it old school and it'll taste better. Besides, I rarely eat potatoes anyway.

BTW, welcome to DU!
:hi:

[guitar man]

14. "government is not the solution to our problems

government is the problem!"

:sarcasm:

:grr:

[bkkyosemite]

15. Had some hashbrowns in refrig date March 25th but threw them away. My husband likes to use them for

breakfast. I just told him he has to shred his own from now on. This food thing is getting so ridiculous and even non processed foods (produce/nuts) has been contaminated. Buy local if you can. Can't wait until our local Farmers Market opens in March...geeze

[carlyhippy]

17. I shred my own potatoes, but....wouldn't cooking the potatoes kill the bacteria?

not that I want to be the participant in that experiment.

[schmuls]

18. First peanuts, then ice cream and now potatoes! What is really

going on here?