FDA Issues Class 1 Recall on More Than 4 Million Eggs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has upgraded an ongoing egg recall to Class 1, its highest categorization, signaling the product may cause “serious adverse health consequences or death.”

On Sept. 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out the initial recall for eggs produced by Milo’s Poultry Farms LLC, based in Bonduel, Wisconsin, which stated that the eggs “have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.” The eggs, it added, were distributed in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan through retail stores and food service distributors.

The initial recall noted that 65 people were infected with Salmonella linked to the eggs across nine states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and California, including 24 hospitalizations.

However, on Sept. 30, the recall was upgraded to a Class 1. According to the Associated Press, in total the recall includes more than 345,417 dozen-cartons of eggs, totalling to roughly four million eggs. The CDC noted that the recall includes “all chicken egg types, such as cage-free or organic,” along with “all cases and carton sizes,” and all cases “labeled with ‘Milo’s Poultry Farms’ or ‘Tony’s Fresh Market” of all expiration dates. Eggs from “M & E Family Farms” and “Happy Quackers Farm” duck eggs, both distributed by Milo’s, are also impacted.

As for what consumers should do, the CDC shared that everyone should throw away any of the eggs they may have purchased that are a part of this recall. Additionally, it noted to “Wash items and surfaces that may have touched the recalled eggs using hot soapy water or a dishwasher” and call your healthcare provider if you or anyone in your household has Salmonella’s severe symptoms. Those symptoms, it added, include. “Diarrhea and a fever higher than 102°F, diarrhea for more than three days that is not improving, bloody diarrhea, so much vomiting that you cannot keep liquids down, signs of dehydration, such as not peeing much, dry mouth and throat, or feeling dizzy when standing up.”

The CDC added that these symptoms usually appear between six hours to six days after infection and that most people recover without treatment after four days to one week.