Tainted Sausages Prompt Recall And A Whole Lot Of Elbow Nudging

Ha, sausage is funny.

Ha, sausage is funny.

Connoisseurs of sausage know that the meat is much better without pieces of plastic gloves in it, which is why one company is recalling 38,000 pounds of sausage suspected to contain such foreign bits. The Gwaltney mild sausage rolls come in a one-pound package and may contain “small pieces of glove particles.”

To add to the snickering no doubt erupting over whichever sausage joke you want to go with, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says the recall from Smithfield Packing Company in Virginia includes includes various ah, chubs of sausage. Ahem.

Those affected include:

• 1-lb. chubs of “Gwaltney mild pork sausage roll” with a use-by date of Mar. 12, 2013
• Cases containing chubs of “Gwaltney mild pork sausage roll” with a case code of 78533109741

The USDA says the sausages in question were produced on Jan. 11 and distributed to stores in Alabama, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

The company received two consumer complaints prior to the recall, but no reports of injury have been reported so far.

“We received two notifications from customers regarding the presence of glove-like particles in the sausage product,” a Smithfield Foods corporate spokesman told the Daily Press. “While there have been no reports of injury associated with this material, as a precautionary measure Gwaltney immediately reported it to the USDA and has issued a voluntary recall.”

Consumers can get a refund for the products included in the recall, and the USDA says anyone with questions should contact Wendy Johnson, Manager of Consumer Affairs, at (877) 933-4625.

Virginia Firm Recalls Pork Sausage Product That May Contain Foreign Materials [USDA FSIS]
Smithfield Foods unit issues sausage recall [Daily Press]

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