THUNDER BAY — Marini Foods Limited has recalled several brands of salami and cacciatore sausages due to a possible salmonella contamination outbreak on Saturday.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) tested the following 13 brands for contamination of an multi drug-resistant strain of the salmonella: Bona, Cosmo's Smoked Meats, Imperial Meats, Longos, Luc's European Meats Cheese & Eats, Marini Salumi, Naturissimo, P&E Foods, Rea, Speziale Fine Foods, Superior Meats, T.J. Meats and Vince's Cured Meats Corp.
Of these brands, at least 67 processed meat products that may be contaminated were distributed in retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, institutions, and to the public, according to a public health notice issued on Saturday.
The CFIA is verifying that the industry is removing these recalled products from the marketplace and conducting an ongoing food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products.
Grocery stores, specialty markets, restaurants and cafés, delis and butcher shops could have sold or used them in prepared products such as sandwiches.
As of Saturday evening, there were 87 laboratory-confirmed cases of the illness linked to this outbreak — 17 of which were within Ontario.
The Public Health Agency of Canada is also investigating the outbreak of human illness and its public health notice will be updated as the investigation evolves.
While food contaminated with the microbacteria may not look or smell spoiled and not always lead to sickness, if people are exposed, it can cause a wide range of symptoms typically within the first six to 72 hours, including chills, fever, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps and a sudden headache.
Most of these symptoms end within four to seven days as people recover fully without treatment.
However, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk for potentially contracting serious and sometimes deadly infections that require hospital care and may lead to long-lasting health effects, such as severe arthritis or death.
People who are infected with the bacteria can also spread it to others several days to weeks after they have become infected, even without symptoms.
More recent illnesses may continue to be reported in the outbreak, with the illness reporting period ranging from 11 to 45 days.
Individuals, retailers, distributors and food service establishments are advised to check for recalled products, contact a retailer if they are unsure if they have purchased affected products, throw out or return the products to where they were purchased and contact healthcare providers if sickness is believed to have started from consuming one of the products.
People are also advised not to consume, serve, use, sell or distribute the recalled products.
The recalled products were also distributed to Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, but may not be limited to the provinces with known illnesses.
