Did Recalled Castleberry’s Foods Kill New Mexico Man?
September 26th, 2007 laurie
Health officials are urging people to recheck their pantries for recalled Castleberry’s Food Company products. This comes after reports that a New Mexico man died from botulism poisoning. Though they’ve been unable to directly tie the man’s illness to the botulism-tainted foods, health officials do know that he had eaten some of the recalled Castleberry’s products before he got sick.
The man in New Mexico was hospitalized with botulism on July 26, and died about six weeks later. Back in July, hot dog chili sauces produced by Castleberry’s Food Company were linked to four cases of botulism poisoning in Texas and Indiana. Ultimately, Castleberry’s had to recall more than 90 varieties of its canned products, and it had to shut down the Augusta, Georgia factory that produced the contaminated foods. The botulism was finally traced to a malfunctioning production line that was not allowing cans to heat long enough to kill botulism spores.
The Castleberry’s hot dog chili sauce outbreak took a lot of people by surprise. It was the first time in 40 years that botulism had been linked to commercially made foods. Usually, botulism is the result of home canning gone bad. The incident also showed how inadequate the food recall system in this country is. Health authorities had a hard time getting the word out on the recall, and tainted Castleberry’s cans were still on shelves weeks after the recall was announced. Hence the renewed call to consumers to check for tainted Castleberry’s cans.
Just last week, Castleberry’s Food Company reopened the factory in Augusta. The company has said that the broken production line will not reopen with the rest of the factory. Instead, it will pay a contractor to make hot dog chili sauce at another location. The factory reopening is good news for its workers – Castleberry’s offered some of the few jobs with decent pay in Augusta. Hopefully Castleberry’s has taken steps to insure that both consumers and their employees won’t have to endure any more food poisoning scares related to the company’s products.
