The E. Coli outbreak that involved Costco will see an expanded recall of celery products from other prominent grocery chains such as Walmart, Safeway, Sam's Club, Albertsons, 7-Eleven and Target. This is not without good reason as the tally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of 19 infected consumers from California, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Utah, Virginia and Washington after consuming Costco's consignment celery mix is more than enough to raise nationwide attention.
The scare has affected an estimated total of 155,000 products sold in these major chains throughout more than 12 states.
A complete list of these stores has been provided by Taylor Farms Pacific, which distributes the celery vegetable mix used in Costco's chicken salad, and is available in the FDA site.
Taylor Farms Pacific labels its voluntary recall of its products as an act "out of an abundance of caution." The Montana Department of Health confirmed through testing that the vegetable mix used in Costco's chicken salad is, in fact, positive for E. coli.
CDC projects that the number of cases of infection may still grow in the coming weeks despite the large-scale product removal. This may be especially true for those who purchased the tainted items from Costco stores in the US on or prior to November 20. As caution is the best response, health authorities have been urging consumers to bin any such purchase.
The symptoms of E.coli infection become apparent after three to five days after consumption of any tainted food. These symptoms are:
#1 diarrhoea
#2 abdominal cramps, pain in the mid-secton
#3 a sense of nausea
#4 vomiting
If any or all of the symptoms occur, infected victims should seek medical help right away. Experts say that the E. coli strain in this outbreak is called O157:H7 and is more dangerous as it can cause kidney failure among adults, but more especially among the elderly and among children. The milder strains of E.coli can exist in the human gut without causing any harm.
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