HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sounded the alarm about foodborne illness Monday, just days after Boar’s Head recalled more than 7 million pounds of deli meat due to listeria contamination.
“This kind of incident is all too common in Connecticut and in America,” Blumenthal said. “In fact, one in every six people in the United States of America, that's 48 million people, are affected by listeria or other forms of food poisoning at some point during the year. 128,000 hospitalizations and thousands of deaths, literally thousands of deaths, from food poisoning. Contamination-tainted food is a major public health crisis in Connecticut and all around the country.”
The FDA said listeria was discovered in meat products at Stop & Shop and Big Y, forcing businesses in more than 13 states to close their deli counters and toss out all the meat and cheese.
To put the impact in perspective locally, Connecticut is home to 88 Stop & Shop locations and 90 Big Y Stores.
“We worked our inspectors worked directly with retailers to enforce this recall and to make sure we got these meats off the shelves, but it's really a joint effort,” Hartford’s Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said. “We need all individuals in this city in this area. To be involved in this as well we need to make you need to make sure that if there are potentially contaminated meats in your own house that you throw them out, that you're aware of the potential symptoms.”
The Connecticut Public Health Department said signs to look out for include: vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headaches, flu-like symptoms, confusion, loss of balance, stiff neck and in extreme cases, seizures.
But there are steps people can take at home to stay safe.
“If you wash your produce, if you heat your meat products, even if they're contaminated, there's a chance that you're going to reduce your chances of getting infected by a lot,” Commissioner Manisha Juthani, with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said.
Federal health officials issued at least 14 food recalls in July due to contamination concerns. Blumenthal said this latest recall reflects a larger failure with the Food and Drug Administration, an agency he said is underfunded and unprepared to prevent food contamination, in the first place.
“We shouldn't be just reacting, we should be preventing the kind of tainted, contaminated and poisoned food products that all too often cause illness and death in America,” Blumenthal said. “The food supply of America needs help. And it needs it from a new federal agency, the Federal Food Administration.”
The senator is pushing for the FDA to become two separate agencies: one branch to address the pharmaceutical industry and another to strictly focus on the food Americans consume. He is a co-sponsor of a new proposed federal bill, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro in the House and U.S. Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin, called the Federal Food Administration Act.
The senator said if it does not pass under this Biden administration, he will push for it again next year.
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Bridgette Bjorlo is an anchor/reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at bbjorlo@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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