A third man who consumed products from a central Massachusetts dairy that were tainted with bacteria has died, the state health department said Monday.The 87-year-old man fell ill in November and died Thursday, said Donna Rheaume, spokeswoman for the state department of public health.
The number of people sickened by listeria bacteria also rose to five after health officials linked a 31-year-old woman’s listeriosis, diagnosed in September, to products from the diary.
The infection was detected while the woman was in the hospital to deliver a baby, and “both mother and child are doing well,” Rheaume said.
Health officials say the bacteria entered Whittier Farms’ milk supply after it was pasteurized. Two of those victims, a 78-year-old man and a 75-year-old man, died in June and October. Another elderly man and a pregnant woman survived, although the woman miscarried.
The Shrewsbury dairy remains shuttered, and its owners are cooperating with officials trying to determine the source of contamination, Rheaume said. The farm delivered milk mostly to homes in the Worcester area…more…
January 5, 2008
US-MI-Detroit Free Press-Company recalls some meat in Detroit area for E. coli risk
A Detroit meat production company is voluntarily recalling about 13,150-pounds of ground beef and steak products that may be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.
The meat was produced at Mark’s Quality Meats, Inc. in late December and was distributed to restaurants throughout metro Detroit, but wasn’t sold at stores.
The problem was discovered after a meat sample, submitted for lab tests, came back positive for the bacterium.
Michael Layne, a spokesman for Mark’s Quality Meats, said some of the meat has been consumed, but the products that weren’t have been removed from the restaurants, brought back to the company’s facility and destroyed. About 200 restaurants had received meat from the company, he said.
Layne said it’s unclear how the meat may have been contaminated. It could have happened in a slaughterhouse before the meat was shipped to the company or it could have happened on sight, he said…more…
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