DELAURO: SPINACH RECALL HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO FUND NEW FOOD SAFETY LAW

DELAURO: SPINACH RECALL HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO FUND NEW FOOD SAFETY LAW

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement today in response to the recall of various salad products produced by State Garden of Chelsea, Massachusetts, including spinach, arugula, and pre-packaged mixes due to potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

These products were sold under various names, such as Gold Quality, Hannaford, Natures Place, Natures Promise, Roche Bros, Northeast Fresh, Noreast Fresh, Olivia’s Organics, Signature, Wegmans, and sold at retailers such as Giant, Stop & Shop, Shaw’s, Roche Brothers, and Wegmans.

Listeria monocytogenes can cause deadly infections in young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. It has also been known to cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women. Currently, no illnesses have been associated with this recall.

“This latest recall should serve as a stark reminder that we must resist efforts to cut funding of the new FDA food safety law. If the FDA does not possess the adequate resources to implement the new law, it will not be able to better prevent food-borne illness outbreaks through increased inspection rates for high risk facilities and improved food-borne illness surveillance activities. The massive spinach recall in 2006, not only resulted in three deaths and sickened over 200 people across the country, but also caused significant harm to the produce industry, from which the industry has yet to recover. Future outbreaks like this will further threaten American consumers and farmers and unless we make it a top priority to fully fund the new FDA food safety law.”