Listeria recall grows to 12 million pounds of meat and poultry, some of it sent to US schools

A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 12 million pounds and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said.

The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice and retail companies across the country.

Routine testing found potentially dangerous listeria bacteria in samples of BrucePac chicken, officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department said. No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, USDA officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not launched an outbreak investigation, a spokesperson said.

The recall, issued on Oct. 9, includes foods produced between May 31 and Oct. 8. The USDA has posted a 342-page list of hundreds of potentially affected foods, including chicken wraps sold at Trader Joe's, chicken burritos sold at Costco and many types of salads sold at stores such as Target and Walmart. The foods were also sent to school districts and restaurants across the country.

The recalled foods can be identified by establishment numbers “51205 or P-51205” inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. Consumers can search on the USDA recall site to find potentially affected products. Such foods should be thrown away or returned to stores for refunds, officials said.

Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.

The same type of bacteria is responsible for an outbreak tied to Boar's Head deli meat that has killed at least 10 people since May.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - The logo of the United States Department of Agriculture is seen, Aug. 10, 2007, at the US Embassy in Berlin. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A northeastern Pennsylvania county where ballot paper shortages caused problems during the 2022 election — halting some voting and requiring a judge to extend poll hours — has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to ensure sufficient paper will be ordered for future elections.

Luzerne County signed off last week on the settlement with two voters who, as a result of the paper shortages, were unable to cast ballots in that election at polling places in Freeland and Shickshinny. The county will pay $30,000 for litigation expenses and will train election workers, including on the topic of ordering sufficient paper.

The lawsuit filed in March 2023 in federal court in Scranton argued that “the chaos on Election Day was entirely preventable and predictable” and was partly the result of inadequate training. The dismissal notice in the case was filed Tuesday.

“When polling places ran out of paper, election officials and workers were instructed to tell voters they could not vote and to come back later. Those voters would return later only to be denied the right to vote again because the polling places still had no paper ballots,” the complaint alleged.

A judge kept polls open for two extra hours in Luzerne County as a result of the issues, which contributed to a delay in reporting election results. The problems caused voting to stop in 16 of Luzerne’s 143 polling locations, in some cases just until they could turn to the use of emergency or provisional ballots.

An August letter from Luzerne County's lawyer, Drew McLaughlin, to the federal judge handling the case, said ballot paper shortages have not occurred during the four elections held there the past two years — primaries in 2023 and 2024, the General Election of 2023 and a special election.

McLaughlin said many of the improvements agreed to in the settlement have already been adopted, including training and procedural changes. Luzerne County manager Romilda Crocamo signed off on the settlement Thursday.

In a phone interview Wednesday, McLaughlin called the 2022 voting problems in Luzerne County “kind of a freak occurence that's not going to happen again.”

In June 2023, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce announced his investigation into the ballot paper shortage found no evidence of criminal activity or purposeful efforts to prevent voting. Sanguedolce, an elected Republican, attributed the problems to inexperienced supervisors.

Donald Trump won Luzerne County in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests.

FILE - A Luzerne County worker canvases ballots Nov. 6, 2020, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)