[Erin524]

Do NOT buy the Turkey Meatloaf with Cranberry Glaze on it from the meat department. (it was in the same display case as the hamburgers of questionable origin, and right next to the beef meatloaf made by the same company that created the Turkey Meatloaf...guess we'll be returning that package of meatloaf tomorrow afternoon. I sure wont be eating it)

We bought it, and consumed it for dinner. I am not enjoying seeing a reappearance of it at 4am. (well, I wasnt sleeping anyways)

I feel like that guy in the Alien (Aliens?) movie just before the Alient Monster crawled it's way out of the guy's stomach the hard way. Well, maybe not that bad, maybe more like the passengers in the movie Airplane!

Hopefully I wont have to be sick any more...I dont like the broken ribcage feeling that the muscle spasms in my ribs give me. (argh! spasticity sucks!!!! and it sucks even more when you're throwing up!)

I'm assuming that this is food poisoning and not some nasty stomach flu. I dont want the stomach flu. I'm going on a vacation this weekend and dont want to be recovering from my stomach trying to turn itself inside out)


and I apologize to anyone who thinks this is TMI.


Rumack: What was it we had for dinner tonight?
Elaine Dickinson: Well, we had a choice of steak or fish.
Rumack: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes

[Kitty]

Hope you feel better soon. I don't/won't shop at WalMart so I guess I'm safe.

[yeahbut]

sorry you got sick Erin - I don't buy any food at Wal-Mart. Have a good vacation!

[braingonebad]

Aw, hope you feel better soon.
I buy food there, but not the meat (except the pre-cooked bacon).

We try to get most of that from the meat market down the street. The rest, we get with gift cards from dh's work from another market.

You have any Pepto or milk of magnesia? That might help.

[Vonn07]

sorry to hear about your tummy-ache from the meatloaf ... (had the same experience with a 'Grandma's Meatloaf' from Festival .. not good there either!)

hope you are feeling better ... saltine crackers or Ritz will help settle your tummy!

[lady_express_44]

We've got a terrible situation going on up here right now, with "voluntary" meat recalls on Maple Leaf Foods products due to an outbreak of "Listeriosis". There have already been 4 deaths, and several sick people . . . so people are very afraid at the moment.

"Two food samples tested positive for the listeria strain linked to the outbreak while a third showed a "slight variance'' health officials said. Further test results are expected this week as the investigation proceeds."

"Maple Leaf will expand its recall to include all products produced at the plant as a precaution, McCain said today. Last week, the food processor recalled 23 meat products after the infection was discovered."

"The expanded recall will involve more than 200 products produced by Maple Leaf, Health Minister Tony Clement said this evening in a news briefing. Clement said the number of cases of listeriosis is expected to rise because the incubation period for the bacteria can be as long as 70 days."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...o&refer=canada

Cherie

[lady_express_44]

Here's a list of the recalled items (so far), with several brand names being affected, including: Burns, Safeway, Overlander, Schneider, etc:

http://files.newswire.ca/464/RecallList.pdf

Chances are that many of these are sold in the US too.

[braingonebad]

All the food recalls are scary. I wonder, is food really less safe, are they just doing more recalls now, or are we just hearing more about it?

[lady_express_44]

Originally Posted by braingonebad

All the food recalls are scary. I wonder, is food really less safe, are they just doing more recalls now, or are we just hearing more about it?

I was reading up on this last night (can't find the link now), but apparently this particular bacteria used to kill far more people then it does now (even with a much smaller population/distribution channels back in the early 1900's). What I read today was:

In the 1980s, the United States government began taking measures to decrease the occurrence of listeriosis. Processed meats and dairy products are now tested for the presence of Listeria monocytogenes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) can legally prevent food from being shipped, or order food recalls, if they detect any Listeria bacteria. These inspections, in combination with the public education regarding the proper handling of uncooked foods, appear to be working. In 1989, there were 1,965 cases of listeriosis with 481 deaths. In 1993, the numbers fell to 1,092 cases with 248 deaths.

In 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began a nationwide food-borne disease surveillance program called "FoodNet," in which seven states were participating by January 1997. Results from the program indicated that, in 1996, one person out of every 200,000 people got listeriosis. FoodNet also revealed that the hospitalization rate was higher for listeriosis (94%) than for any other food-borne illness. In addition, FoodNet found that the Listeria bacteria reached the blood and cerebrospinal fluid in 89% of cases, a higher percentage than in any other food-borne illness."

This is interesting . . .

Listeria bacteria can pass through the wall of the intestines, and from there they can get into the blood stream. Once in the blood stream, they can be transported anywhere in the body, but are commonly found the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord); and in pregnant women they are often found in the placenta (the organ which connects the baby's umbilical cord to the uterus). Listeria monocytogenes live inside specific white blood cells called macrophages. Inside macrophages, the bacteria can hide from immune responses and become inaccessible to certain antibiotics. Listeria bacteria are capable of multiplying within macrophages, and then may spread to other macrophages.

Infection is most common in babies younger than one month old and adults over 60 years of age. Pregnant women account for 27% of the cases and immunocompromised persons account for almost 70%.

http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz...isteriosis.jsp

So, perhaps they are doing a much better job of identifying this infection before it spreads too far, combined with more immunosuppressed consumers (who are generally living longer these days, with the use of meds, transplants, etc.).

That's just one type of bacteria, but the others that are found in food are probably following the same protocol.

Then there are recalls due to tampering, etc.

Most foods are mass produced now, and the rules about allergens and cross-contamination (even nutrients) are much stricter. It's much easier to have a 'screw-up' when there are so many rules in place these days.

Cherie

[Erin524]

I just woke up.

I feel a little bit better now that I've gotten some sleep. (didnt get to sleep till 630 or 7am)

I still feel a little yucky, but not anything like what I felt earlier. My dad thought that something in the "meatloaf" gave me an upset stomach and not a true food poisoning. (now wondering if that was actually meat)

It's scary how easy it is to get sick from something you eat. I get food poisoning several times a year usually. This was probably the mildest bit of yuck that I've gotten from something I've eaten. I just feel like I've got a hangover and my ribs hurt a lot on the left side today. Whole body hurts now.

I hope I feel ok to sleep tonight, I need to get my sleep patterns to a more normal setting, I dont want to ruin the boyfriend's vacation this weekend because my brain is on Greenwich Mean Time and not on American Central Time.