Complain about a product or service

Gourmet Bouquet Recalls Fresh and Frozen Meat Products

Second recall in recent months for the New York company

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 4, 2008

Food Safety • Chicken Labels Can Be Misleading • Court Orders Tyson to Pluck its 'No Antibiotics' Campaign • Report Finds Flaws In Food Inspection System • Lawmakers Push For 'Transparency' On Food Recalls • Salmonella Illnesses Linked to Recently Recalled Cereal • CDC Finds Little Progress Containing Foodborne Illness • Honduran Cantaloupes Linked To Salmonella • Pills in Fish Sticks Spark Recall • Fewer Food Inspectors, More Recalls • Congress Hears Warnings about FDA • Massive Beef Recall Follows Mad Cow Scare • FDA Budget Request 'Falls Short' • FDA Warns Of Contaminated Gulf Coast Seafood • USDA Closes Plant Suspected Of Slaughtering Downer Cows • Schools Drop Burgers From Menu After Downer Cow Scare • Consumers Union Wants Cloned Food Clearly Labeled • Green Bean, Garbanzo Bean Recall Expanded • More ... --- • Mad Cow Disease Index • Food Recalls • Pet Food Recalls

A New York food producer is recalling about 286,000 pounds of fresh and frozen beef, pork and poultry products that may be contaminated with listeria, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.

Gourmet Boutique, of Jamaica, Queens, bills itself as “America’s leading manufacturer of high-quality, ready-to-eat prepared foods.”

The nationwide recall includes a variety of sizes, from nine-ounce packages of Gourmet Boutique Wrapanini Meatball Parmigiana to seven-pound containers of Gourmet Boutique Fruit and Nut Honey Chicken Salad Kit, USDA said. The meats being recalled are chicken, turkey, beef and pork.

The meals may be contaminated with bacteria that may cause listeriosis, a potentially fatal illness whose symptoms may include high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea.

The fresh meat and poultry salad products were produced from April 19 to 24, while the frozen foodstuffs were produced from October 2007 to April 23, the agency said.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a Class I recall, which affects products sent to supermarkets and food stores nationwide. A Class I alert, which carries the highest priority, is issued when there is a “reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death,” the USDA's statement said.

No illnesses had been reported.

Listeria can cause listeriosis, a rare disease that can lead to serious and sometimes fatal infections in infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. The disease can also cause miscarriages.

In March, the company recalled nearly 7,000 pounds of products sent to stores in 10 states because of possible listeria contamination.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Back to the top |