On June 14th The Egg Basket recalled four brands of eggs in NSW due to a salmonella enteritidis contamination. This makes The Egg Basket the seventh company to recall their eggs since last September. The recalls were due to salmonella which is believed to have been widely spread by egg sharing between farms.
The four brands recalled by The Egg Basket include:
- Country Fresh Eggs
- Just Eggs
- Chefs Choice Free Range
- Chefs Choice Cage Free Eggs
The recalled eggs were sold directly from businesses in Kemps Creek and at Flemington Markets in NSW. The recalled eggs can be identified by the use by dates of June 14, June 20, June 24, June 29, July 5, July 9, or by the stamp eb2449 on the shell.
According to New South Wales Health there have been 171 victims in this outbreak, all contracting the particular salmonella strain (of which there are more than 2200) that was detected by health officials sometime in May of 2018. As of today there are 11 properties identified as infected with this particular strain of salmonella enteritidis throughout NSW. All the properties have been quarantined and efforts are under way to eradicate the infection.
The managing director of Australian Eggs, Rowan McMonnies said that government authorities have been tracing and testing for salmonella enteritidis since late 2018:
“Salmonella Enteritidis is a new and unique bacteria for us in Australia and responding to the threat has been a learning experience for both government and industry. Risks are driven by biosecurity practices and farm management and it is these issues that are the focus of our response.”
Accordingly, NSW DPI has taken steps to reduce the customer exposure to the contaminated eggs by issuing movement restrictions, farm depopulation, decontamination, and improvement’s to biosecurity.
According to Rowan McMonnies, the discovery of salmonella enteritidis has affected farmers severely and many of the farms may be unable to recover.
The seven companies which have issued recalls since September 2018 are:
- The Egg Basket
- Port Stephens Eggs
- Steve’s Fresh Eggs
- Synergy Produce Pty. Ltd.
- Bridgewater Poultry Eggs
- Ash and Son Eggs
- Glendenning Farms
The NSW DPI has stated that all other eggs are safe to eat as long as they are cooked properly and people exercise the safe food handling precautions for eggs.
In the US, according to one egg salmonella lawyer, “there are outbreaks of salmonella all too often here as well. One of the most recent egg salmonella outbreaks, traced to Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms, sickened at least 2000 in 2010.”
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/industry/eggs
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/HealthyLiving/food-safety-eggs
https://www.medianet.com.au/releases/176371/
https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/general/index.html
https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000003/p0000003.asp
