Consumer Safety Report

Salmonella is a silent infector...

Be aware. Be preventative.

Iowa lab warned egg company of hens infected with salmonella months before outbreak, recall

         Salmonella is one of the most common bacterial form of food borne illnesses. Salmonella is a terrible bacterial that can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within days of eating a contaminated product also, it can be life-threatening and there have been many cases of this illness throughout Canada and the US. An outbreak of salmonella occurred April 2010 in Iowa when hens were discovered infected with salmonella leaving their eggs contaminated.The laboratory where they were testing the eggs reported the results to the producer who had requested the tests, but scientists stated they had no legal or ethical obligation to alert consumers. The tests were made while a federal grand jury looked into whether egg company executives misled the public by continuing to market products as being safe despite there potential knowledge being that they were contaminated. By late April scientists tested the hens that originated from DeCoster's poultry and discovered that 43% of DeCoster's poultry houses in Iowa were testing positive for salmonella. Around the same time DeCoster's managers started noticing a high death rate of chickens and these car-causes were sent for testing. This led the buyers of the tainted eggs to file law suits against DeCoster's company because of the proof they obtained. Overall, this outbreak resulted by sickening about 62,000 Americans thankfully no deaths were reported. 

The video below shows one of the news casts covering this outbreak:

Read more about the outbreak below:
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How can you prevent salmonella in your own home?

The video below gives you some useful tips on how to be preventative against salmonella:

How do you know if you have salmonella poisoning?

It is always good to consult a doctor if you feel you have a food borne illness but some symptom identifiers are:

• Nausea
• Vomiting 
• Abdominal pain
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Blood in stool

These signs and symptoms of a salmonella infection will last for about seven days and it can even take 7 months for your bowels to go back to normal. Some causes of salmonella can result in typhoid fever and can even be deadly! Therefore, being aware and preventative is a smart start to illuminating your chances for this food borne illness