Washington - A New Jersey company is recalling 30,000 pounds of sausage that may be underprocessed and can cause serious illnesses, the Agriculture Department said on Friday.
Dry fermented sausage products produced by Ideal Sausage Co. of South Hackensack, N.J., were distributed to retail food stores in New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and possibly to several other northeastern states.
"Because of the potential hazard, we urge consumers to avoid eating the recalled products," Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator Thomas Billy said in a statement.
Eating underprocessed food can cause foodborne illnesses with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, chills and headaches, the department said.
There have been no reports of anyone getting sick after eating Ideal Sausage products, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman said.
The government was alerted by a distributor whose laboratory tests found that some of the sausage that was already shipped to stores may have been underprocessed.
Sausage normally undergoes a drying process that causes the meat to ferment. If the number of drying days is cut short, the sausage is considered to be underprocessed, the department said.
Products with the following brand names are being recalled: Ideal Sausage Co. Inc., Corrado's, Salmartino, Calabria, Prestia, Piedmont Provision Co. Inc., Liguria, Savona and Maglio.
Products without a code date on the label are being recalled. Any package with a code date of Jan. 6 or later is not included in the recall.
"Est. 7543" appears inside the USDA inspection seal on the labels of the recalled products.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
Web Site: http://www.spcnetwork.com/mii