Egg recall grows to over half billion; Consumers Union calls for action on food-safety bill

Consumer Reports News: August 23, 2010 05:59 PM

Eggs produced at a second farm in Iowa, Hillandale Farms, have been added to the massive recall of eggs from Wright County Egg farms that could be contaminated with salmonella. As we previously reported, Wright County Eggs recalled 380 million eggs; Hillandale Farms adds another 170 million.

There have been at least 1,000 cases of salmonella poisoning linked to eggs from Wright County Egg and Hillandale farms. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told NBC's Today Show that more recalls can be expected as the agency tries to trace

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the distribution of potentially contaminated eggs. She advised consumers to check this FDA website to ensure that the eggs they have in their refrigerators are not among the recalled batches. (That would be great advice, but as of 5:00 ET today, this FDA page still hadn't been updated to include the Hillandale codes, which you'll find here.)

Hamburg called for additional resources for her agency and the FDA's need for greater ability to trace products back to their source to identify how contamination occurred and what products are at risk. She said Congress should pass pending legislation that would provide her agency with greater enforcement power, and proactive measure to keep the food supply safe. We couldn't agree more.

Today, in a press release, Consumers Union repeated the call for the U.S. Senate to pass S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. "The contamination of eggs underlines that we urgently need improvements in the way FDA regulates the safety of food," says Jean Halloran, director of food-policy initiatives for Consumers Union. Halloran recently appeared on CNBC to speak about the issue and the safety of our food supply.

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Egg recall grows to over half billion; Consumers Union calls for action on food-safety bill

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