Mexico Bans Foster Farms Chicken From Plants Linked to Outbreak

The government of Mexico has banned imports of Foster Farms chicken from the poultry grower’s three central California processing facilities linked to a Salmonella outbreak in the U.S., according to The Oregonian.  This is the first time Mexico has banned meat products from a U.S. facility as a result of a public health alert issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, according to a source at the agency. Mexico has not banned meat from other Foster Farms plants in California, Oregon and Washington.  Since March 2013, at least 338 Americans in 20 states and Puerto Rico have fallen ill with Salmonella Heidelberg in connection with raw chicken meat from the three facilities. USDA did not ask for a recall, instead issuing a public health alert. Foster Farms did not voluntarily recall any products, although the Kroger family of stores pulled implicated Foster Farms chicken from shelves earlier this month.  A Costco store in South San Francisco, CA, also recalled a number of rotisserie chickens in connection with the outbreak earlier this month due to the cooked chicken becoming cross-contaminated in the store’s kitchen.  Foster Farms company president Ron Foster apologized to consumers last Friday and said that sales have dropped 25 percent since news of the outbreak went public early this month.