Feds Investigating Link Between Costco Chicken Salad And E.coli Cases
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS-SF) – Costco officials have removed packages of its rotisserie chicken salad from its store shelves while federal health officials investigate whether it is linked to 19 cases of E.coli in seven western states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.
The CDC said in a release that five of those who have fallen ill have been hospitalized with two developing kidney failure, but no deaths have been reported.
It was not immediately known if any of the cases were in the Bay Area.
Federal health officials said 14 of those who have fallen ill have reported that they purchased or ate the rotisserie chicken salad from Costco.
An ongoing investigation by the CDC, Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety is underway to try and identify the ingredient in the salad that is responsible for the illness.
Costco store officials have told the CDC that it has removed packages of the rotisserie chicken salad from its store shelves.
Federal health officials urged anyone who may have purchased the rotisserie chicken salad on or before Nov. 20, 2015 to not eat it and to throw it away.
The packages are labeled – Chicken Salad Made With Rotisserie Chicken -- and have the item number 37719 on the label.
Six people have become ill in Montana, five in Utah, four in Colorado and one each in California, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state.
The outbreak is not related to a recent case involving Chipotle restaurants in which more than 40 people were sickened. That strain was identified as E. coli 026.
The current strain has been identified as E. coli 157, which the CDC said is more likely to be life-threatening, especially in young children.
A call by the Associated Press to Costco headquarters in Washington state seeking comment was not immediately returned.