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A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria bacteria has expanded to nearly 12 million pounds, federal officials said. The recall includes 75 meat and chicken products.

BrucePac of Woodburn, Oregon, recalled the roughly 5,000 tons of ready-to-eat foods this week after U.S. Agriculture Department officials detected listeria in samples of poultry during routine testing, with further tests identifying BrucePac chicken as the source. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac; the company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice, retail companies, school districts and restaurants across the country.

Hundreds of products sold at grocery chains such as Kroger, Wegmans and Trader Joe’s, as well as schools, are part of the BrucePac meat recall that now involves almost 12 million pounds of meat and poultry that may be contaminated with listeria bacteria, which can cause illness and death.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had disclosed the products included in the recall, first announced October 9th in a 300+ page list, which included foods produced between May 31 and Oct. 8. Other brands whose products are part of the recall include Taylor Farms, Boston Market, 7-Eleven, Aldi’s and Rao’s. The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe’s, Target, Walmart and Kroger.

The recalled foods can be identified by establishment numbers “51205 or P-51205” inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. Such foods should be thrown away or returned to stores for refund.  Consumers can search on the USDA recall site to find potentially affected products, and is urging consumers to check the list of products involved in the recall because they may have a different establishment on the label due to processing by other companies: “Consumers are urged to carefully review the information, including the product and label information”. 

The USDA officials said that no illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not launched an outbreak investigation, according to a CDC spokesperson.

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A search is underway for 2 missing U.S. Navy pilots after their aircraft appears to have crashed Tuesday afternoon somewhere east of Mount Rainier in Washington’s Pacific Northwest. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a flight ban around an area believed to be where the jet possibly went down.

The United States Navy said that the aircraft was based on Whidbey Island Naval Air Station north of Seattle and had been on a routine training mission on Tuesday.  It is unknown if the pilots (whose identities have not been released) went down with the plane or ejected themselves from the EA-18G Growler fighter jet before it presumably crashed somewhere at about 3:23 p.m. Pacific time. All EA-18G squadrons are stationed at NAS Whidbey except one squadron at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.

The crashed jet is part of Electronic Attack Squadron 130, which boasts being the oldest electronic warfare squadron in the Navy. According to the Electronic Attack Squadron website, the EA-18G Growler’s sensors and weapons “provides the warfighter with a lethal and survivable weapon system to counter current and emerging threats.”

Per USA Today, the Nay said that the search team includes a U.S. Navy MH-60S helicopter launched from Whidbey Island to “locate the crew and examine the crash site,” but noted that weather could be a factor in the search. Between 5 to 9 inches of snow is possible amid patchy fog and heavy snow is forecast for Wednesday for Mount Rainier.

Editorial credit: Peter R Foster IDMA / Shutterstock.com