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FDA warns restaurants about using bulk-purchased hard-cooked eggs
December 27, 2019
The hard-boiled egg recall that started on Dec. 23 is expanding to include all of Almark Foods' hard-boiled eggs processed at its Gainesville, Georgia, facility for possible listeria monocytogenes contamination, as well as the numerous other distributors of the products to restaurant brands. All restaurant brands are advised to check their purchased bulk hard-cooked eggs and egg whites to ensure they are not using the brands affected.
Restaurateurs that have purchased the recalled brands should not use the eggs and should clean and sanitize all surfaces that have come in contact with the eggs to prevent cross-contamination, according to an FDA alert. Initially, the recall included only eggs the company processed that were sold in bulk pails. But the FDA said that now all the products packaged for retail sale with "Best If Used By Dates" through March 2, 2020, are included in the recall. Almark Foods has ceased production at that Georgia plant, as well.
As of Dec. 17, the FDA had documented seven cases of infection in five states, including one each in Florida, Maine and Pennsylvania and two each in South Carolina and Texas. Of those documented cases, four people were hospitalized, and one person died. Three of those infected reported that they either ate the eggs in restaurant salads or deli combinations from grocers.
The products were distributed nationwide but would mostly have been ordered by restaurant brands as either five-, 20-, 23- or 25-pound quantities from these companies:
- Five-pound lots: Almark Foods, Egglands Best regular and cage-free, Rainbow Farms diced and regular and Vital Farms pasture-raised.
- 20-pound lots: Almark Foods Hard Cooked Broken Egg Whites (12/19/2019, 1/23/2020, 1/24/2020 use by dates), Almark Hard-cooked Eggs (1/29/2020, 2/10/2020, 2/24/2019, 2/14/2020), Nic's Peeled Pearls, Nic's Salad Grade Hard-boiled Eggs (12/24/2019, 12/25/2019, 12/31/2019, 1/6/2020, 1/7/2020, 1/8/2020, 1/13/2020, 1/14/2020, 1/28/2020, 1/28/2020, 1/29/2020, 2/4/2020, 2/5/2020), Rainbow Farms (1/13/2020, 1/20/2020, 1/21/2020, 1/22/2020, 1/27/2020, 1/28/2020, 1/29/2020, 2/3/2020, 2/10/2020, 2/11/2020, 2/14/2020, 2/17/2020, 2/18/2020, 2/24/2020) and Sutherland's Food Service Inc., Premium Hard Cooked Peeled Select Whole Eggs (1/15/2020).
- 23-pound lots: Eggs Select Whole Hard Cooked Peeled Eggs (1/27/2020), Nic's Peeled Pearls Salad Grade Hard-Boiled Eggs (1/20/2020, 2/3/2020, 2/4/2020, 2/24/2020), Rainbow Farms (1/13/2020, 1/15/2019, 1/20/2020, 1/22/2019, 1/27/2020, 1/29/2020, 2/3/2020, 2/10/2020, 2/13/2020, 2/17/2020, 2/19/2020, 2/24/2020, 2/26/2020) and Rainbow Farms Hard Cooked Peeled Eggs in Vinegar (1/22/2020, 2/13/2020)
- 25-pound lots: Rainbow Farms (1/13/2020, 1/28/2020, 2/13/2020, 2/17/2020)
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