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Feds Issue Salmonella Warning On Pot Pies

First ConAgra's peanut butter, now its pot pies are suspect

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 10, 2007

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If you have frozen pot pies made by ConAgra in your freezer, check the brand and label carefully before popping them in the oven.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is trying to determine whether chicken and turkey pot pies made by ConAgra are tainted with salmonella.

FSIS says a Missouri establishment has voluntarily ceased operations due to reported illnesses linked to their products.

Banquet brand and generic store brand frozen not-ready-to-eat pot pie products with "P-9" printed on the side of the package may be the potential source of reported illnesses caused by Salmonella based on epidemiological evidence collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State public health departments.

ConAgra said it believes the problem stems from consumers undercooking the product.

“Salmonella is among the common pathogens found in not-ready-to-eat poultry containing products like pot pies. Cooking instructions are designed to result in the elimination of any risk associated with salmonella,” the company said in a statement on its Web site.

ConAgra is no stranger to salmonella, as it engaged in a massive recall of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter earlier this year. The salmonella-tainted peanut butter sickened hundreds, and may have been responsible for as many as four deaths.

On October 3, the CDC launched a multi-state case control study with detailed questions on chicken and egg consumption.

Based on additional information provided by the Minnesota Department of Health, CDC added questions to the study on October 5 focusing on frozen chicken or turkey pot pie product consumption. FSIS says it was notified on October 5 that states had identified an FSIS-regulated product to the CDC as the potential source of contamination.

After discussions with CDC and the states throughout the weekend, FSIS Monday dispatched specially trained investigators to gather additional information at the federally inspected establishment producing these frozen pot pie products.

”The Agency is advising consumers not to eat or to discard these chicken or turkey pot pie products until we are able to determine the source, products and potential production dates of contamination and to verify proper cooking instructions for these not-ready-to-eat products,” FSIS said in a statement.

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