A public health alert has been issued for 17 products by the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) after meat and poultry products were illegally imported into the United States from Myanmar, with anyone in possession urged to throw the items away or return them to the retailer.
The products, eight of which are curry related, were first discovered by the FSIS during what it termed “routine surveillance activities at a retailer.” Myanmar is not eligible to export meat or dairy products into the U.S., and the FSIS is investigating how they arrived in the country.
Of the 17 items, all but two are being sold under the brand name “Grandma.” These are grandma style sardine in tomato sauce (400g), grandma style fried carp with curry paste (100g), grandma style anabas curry (130g), grandma style steamed carp fish (130g), grandma fish with salt (100g), grandma chickpea curry (400g), grandma steamed ngo gyin fish (130g), grandma carp fish in fermented soybeans (100g), grandma steamed dusk (125g), grandma catfish & noni (120g), grandma striped catfish & tomato curry (400g), grandma striped catfish & mango curry (400g), grandma striped catfish & tomato curry (120g), grandma striped catfish & mango curry (120g) and grandma ohn no khao swe chicken (400g). The other two products included in the alert are san pya daw kyi (200g – contains catfish) and hiti mi gwi Mawlamyine mohinga (360g – catfish).
The public health alert applies to all 17 items regardless of product date and the articles in question “do not bear any import marks on the labels.” They were dispatched to locations across the U.S. for sale.
The FSIS said it was “concerned that some product may be in consumers’ pantries and on retailers’ shelves.”
It added: “Retailers who have purchased the products are urged not to sell them. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
ARUN SANKAR/AFP/GETTY
According to the FSIS, there have been no confirmed reports of medical issues linked to any of the 17 products thus far. The agency urges anyone concerned about an illness in relation to the items to “contact a health care provider.”
Consumers with any queries about the alert can contact the Department of Agriculture’s toll-free meat and poultry hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or else send an email to MPHotline@usda.gov.
On Friday, Perdue Foods LLC, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, announced it was recalling 167,000 pounds of “frozen, ready-to-eat chicken breast nugget and tender products” over fears they had been contaminated with metal.
Grocery chain Wegmans on Tuesday recalled ultra-pasteurized half-and-half products over fears they may not have been properly tested for antibiotic residue. The items effected have the best-by date of October 10 and the plant code of 36-1287.
Separately, the recall of a range of guacamole products has been given the highest risk classification by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This applies to fresh guacamole that was on sale in Lunds & Byerlys stores across the Twin Cities area and St Cloud in Minnesota, along with in ‘Taco Mas’ food pars sold over July 27-31.