A number of food companies have recalled 15,000 pounds of hummus after listeria contamination was discovered by the Texas Department of Health in hummus produced by Target Archer Farms and sold by various companies. According to Food Safety Working Group, a federal agency that coordinates information from various sources, such as the CDC and FDA, the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes is the fourth leading cause of bacterial food poisoning.
Earlier this week, Trader Joe s issued a warning about three of their products that they purchased from Target Archer.
ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava says, This is a serious issue, since,unlike most other food-poisoning bacteria, Listeria bacteria can live and reproduce at refrigerator temperatures. In addition, Listeria can cause abortion if a pregnant woman is infected. Hopefully the affected product was recalled before any such damages occurred.
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom points out a little irony: Last year Trader Joe s issued a statement saying that they would be scrupulously avoiding the use of any products from GM crops.
From their website: When developing products containing ingredients likely to come from genetically modified sources, we have the supplier of the product perform the necessary research to provide documentation that the suspect ingredients are from non-GMO sources. This documentation is in the form of affidavits, identity-preserved certification of seed stock, and third-party lab results from testing of the ingredients in question.
Dr. Bloom suggests that perhaps they are worrying about the wrong thing: The gyrations they are going through to determine whether a product comes from a GM crop or not are a complete waste of time. For example, sugar from a GM sugar beets is identical in every way to sugar from sugar cane. There is no difference. But there is quite a difference between contaminated and non-contaminated food. Perhaps they should pay a little more attention to this instead.
