Tyson Foods chicken is recalled for Listeria Contamination

More Tyson Foods chicken is being recalled for possible listeria contamination. The massive recall was first announced on Saturday which grew by nearly 500,000 pounds Thursday, according to an update posted on the recall notice in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service website.

Nearly 8,955,296 pounds of frozen and cooked chicken products are part of the recall. Walmart, Target, Kroger, Publix, H-E-B and Wegmans are among the retailers that sold Tyson branded fully cooked and frozen products. Private label products are also part of the recall and some were made for restaurants, including Jet’s Pizza, Casey’s General Store, Marco’s Pizza and Little Caesars.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also issued a food safety alert Saturday saying the products which were shipped nationwide to retailers and institutions including hospitals, nursing facilities, restaurants and schools may be linked to a listeria outbreak that has caused three illnesses and one death.The CDC said that Listeria can cause common food poisoning symptoms, like diarrhea and fever. It can also cause severe illness, known as invasive listeriosis when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body.

Symptoms of severe illness start one to four weeks after eating contaminated food, but symptoms can start as late as 10 weeks after. The CDC says that Adults 65 or older, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for severe illness from listeria. Each package of the recalled products has the establishment code P-7089. A full list of the recalled products is posted on the USDA website and Tyson foods.com. Find product codes and date codes of the affected products on the USDA list.