ConAgra Suffers New Food Scare

Oct 10, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Elizabeth Weise

An outbreak of salmonella that began in March, sickened at least 139 people in 30 states and sent 23 to hospitals has been linked to ConAgra's Banquet and its generic store-brand chicken and turkey pot pies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.

The frozen pot pies were manufactured by ConAgra and bear the number "P-9" printed on the side of the packages. The Department of Agriculture is advising consumers not to eat the pies and to discard them, says Amanda Eamich with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. ConAgra is not recalling the pies but is offering mail-in refunds and store returns.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began a multistate investigation on Oct.3 to try to identify the cause of the outbreak, looking at chicken and egg consumption, as those are most commonly associated with salmonella.

Clues from the Minnesota Department of Health helped narrow the suspect food to frozen chicken or turkey pot pies on Oct.5. USDA, which regulates frozen pot pies, launched its investigation that day.

On Monday, USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service sent specially trained investigators to ConAgra's Marshall, Mo., plant. It voluntarily suspended operations on Tuesday, USDA's Eamich says.

ConAgra said Tuesday that it believed "any potential issue was likely due to consumer undercooking of the product." The pies are safe when cooked according to directions, spokeswoman Stephanie Childs says.

William Keene, a senior communicable disease epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division who is tracking the outbreak, disagreed.

"If you cook anything long and hot enough you can kill salmonella. But the story is that hundreds of people have apparently not been able to do that; either they didn't follow the instructions or the instructions were inadequate."

Package instructions say to cook the pies in the microwave on high for four minutes or six minutes in low-wattage microwaves. ConAgra says it is working with USDA to clarify the cooking instructions.

Because of the length and size of the outbreak, "It's pretty hard to square with a single production day's problem. So the working assumption among epidemiologists is that there was some ongoing process failure at the plant," Keene says.

USDA says its investigation is ongoing and that the exact source of the outbreak is not yet known.

Salmonella sickens about 40,000 people a year in the USA and kills about 600, according to the CDC. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain and vomiting.

In February, the CDC linked ConAgra's peanut butter, including Peter Pan, to the illnesses of more than 625 people in 47 states. The company took the peanut butter off the market. Sales resumed in August.

Consumers can call ConAgra with questions at 866-484-8671. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.