Tuna suchi. (Photo Credit: Akira Kamikura/CC BY 2.0)

Indonesian tuna causes salmonella outbreak

UNITED STATES
Friday, July 24, 2015, 23:30 (GMT + 9)

A salmonella outbreak linked to raw yellowfin tuna used to prepare sushi has already affected over 60 consumers in 11 states, according to reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The infected frozen yellowfin tuna chunk meat had been sourced from one processing plant in Indonesia and shipped to AFC Corporation, which has sushi franchises nationwide in many different grocery stores and it is sold from sushi counters.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stressed that the Osamu Corporation voluntarily recalled the frozen yellowfin tuna meat processed from that plant and sold to sold to AFC Corporation of Rancho Dominquez, California. The recalled product is labeled with lot number 68568.

Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems, healthy persons often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain but in rare circumstances, this tupe of infection can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

The dates of illness caused by Salmonella paratyphi B variant range from 5 March to 7 July. More cases may have occurred since the last tally on 19 July because people may delay reporting the illness two to four weeks after falling ill, CBS News reported.

The cases of infection have been reported in California, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, the CDC recommends restaurants and retailers avoid serving or selling the affected products, which can be identified by the four-digit purchase order on the cartons of the boxes of frozen tuna (numbers 8563 through 8599).

The CDC and FDA have been working with state and local health departments to investigate this outbreak since it was announced May 21. 

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