McDonald’s France finds Listeria in chicken salad; supplier recalls dill

McDonald’s has revealed it detected Listeria in a chicken salad sold in restaurants throughout France.The fast food giant said an internal control found the pathogen in one lot of chicken Caesar salad sold from July 9 to 14. It was removed from sale July 15. Florette Food Services (FFS), which is part of the Florette company, supplied the product to McDonald’s.McDonald’s has around 1,400 restaurants in France and informed clients of those affected on its website and by putting up posters in outlets. No illnesses linked to the product have been reported.Other analyses throughout the chain, on the lot concerned, during the day and the month of production have been given the all clear.In the United States, McDonald’s is one of potentially several other companies that sold Fresh Express salad mix contaminated with Cyclospora, resulting in a multi-state outbreak. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed the parasite in salad from the Chiquita Brands LLC subsidiary Fresh Express.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of July 26, there were 286 laboratory-confirmed cases of Cyclospora infection reported in people who had eaten “a variety” of salads from McDonald’s restaurants. At least 11 people have required hospitalization.McDonald’s stopped using the Fresh Express salad mix at implicated restaurants in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri on July 13.Back in France, Florette has also recalled sachets of dill after an internal control showed a presence of Salmonella. The company said the action was in agreement with the direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des frauds (directions regarding competition, consumption and the repression of frauds).All unsold products have been removed from the market. Analyzes are in progress at an independent laboratory to confirm the presence of the pathogen.Florette said an internal investigation is ongoing but initial work has made it possible to identify potentially affected lots sold nationally between July 21 and 24 in retail chains and specialty stores. These are aneth (dill) in 11-gram packages with the following labeling information:

Date: 04/08 and lot number: 204A
Date: 01/08 and lot number: 201A
Date: 31/07 and lot number: 200A
Date: 30/07 and lot number: 199A