AP – Ground beef contaminated with salmonella has sickened at least 16 people, including six hospitalized, in four Northeastern states, federal health officials said Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said illnesses have been reported in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Ground beef is the only common food reported in the outbreak.
People who recalled what they ate and where they bought it reported eating 80% lean ground beef purchased from ShopRite stores in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. No recall has been issued, and an investigation is continuing, the agency said.
The true number of people sickened is likely much higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to states with known illnesses.
Many people who become ill recover without medical care and are not tested for salmonella poisoning. Symptoms of salmonella infection include fever, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.
Who’s cutting America’s meat?butcher
“Somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of the meat-packing workforce is made up of undocumented workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador as well as immigrants from East African nations.” – American Enterprise Institute
“[W]orkers in the meatpacking industry hold a variety of immigration statuses, though many are [illegal aliens] and without permission to work. Estimates put the number of undocumented workers in the United States at more than eleven million.8 Nearly 60 percent of them are migrant workers from Mexico … ” – Human Rights Watch
“[T]he slaughter and processing of the meat we eat relies heavily upon rural workers—disproportionately immigrants, refugees, and people of color—who have few better options .. [Th]e meat- and poultry-processing workforce is predominantly male and overwhelmingly made up of people of color, with a large percentage of immigrants and refugees. Among these, a majority come from Latin America … The vast majority of immigrant workers are noncitizens.” – Economic Policy Institute
