USDA steps up Listeria control measures
[05/27/99; Reuters News Service]
NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters Health) -- New guidelines issued Wednesday
by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the US Department
of Agriculture (USDA) are designed to help industry prevent ready-to-eat
meat and poultry products from becoming contaminated with the
potentially deadly bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.
Listeriosis is an uncommon disease in healthy people. But it can
cause miscarriage and stillbirth in pregnant women, and serious, sometime
fatal infections in infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised.
``If you feel you -- or someone in your family -- are at risk, we're
advising that you reheat ready-to-eat foods like lunch meats,
or avoid them,'' said Dr. Catherine Woteki, undersecretary for
Food Safety at the USDA.
The USDA also suggests washing hands, utensils, dishes and cutting boards
after handling these foods; avoiding soft cheeses; avoiding raw,
unpasteurized milk or cheese; and observing expiration dates on precooked
or ready-to-eat items.Consumers with questions can call the USDA Meat
and Poultry Hotline at 1-800-535-4555.
The full article can be found at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/hl/story.html?s=v/nm/19990526/hl/lis16_
1.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
