There's a lot of talk about turkey ahead of Thanksgiving week.
While many are buying their turkeys for the big holiday, Jennie-O has recalled more than 91,000 pounds of ground turkey that could be carrying salmonella.
The wider salmonella outbreak linked to raw turkey has sickened 164 people in 35 states since November of last year.
FSIS, the CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services conducted tests on a package of Jennie-O turkey found in a patient's home.
FSIS said the patient tested positive for salmonella, and the turkey in their home matched the multi-state salmonella outbreak strain.
Health officials said raw turkey products from numerous sources are contaminated, including ground turkey and turkey patties, and warned that additional products from other companies may also be recalled.
"There are lots of other people in the outbreak who are reporting different types of products, different manufacturers and brands," Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist Sean Buuck says.
So far the outbreak hasn't been officially connected to whole turkeys, like the ones you typically serve on Thanksgiving, but Buuck says there's a chance your holiday birds might be contaminated, because the salmonella outbreak has been so widespread.
"We want people to keep it in the forefront of their mind to cook their turkey thoroughly and handle them very carefully to avoid cross-contamination," Buuck says.
The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association is also encouraging cooks to pay extra attention to their turkeys this Thanksgiving.
"We want to make sure they're cooking it to the proper temperature, 165-degrees, and also that they're handling it properly by keeping raw products separate from cooked products," Minnesota Turkey Growers Association executive director Steve Olson says.
The state's turkey growing industry is expected to produce more than 42-million turkeys this year.
Olson says customers are getting a good deal on turkey this year, because prices are lower than usual due to heavy supply this season.
When it comes to this latest recall, the raw ground turkey products were produced on September 11 and shipped to stores nationwide.
These are the recalled products (click here to see the package labels):
- 1-lb. packages of "Jennie-O GROUND TURKEY 93% LEAN | 7% FAT" with "Use by" dates of 10/01/2018 and 10/02/2018.
- 1-lb. packages of "Jennie-O TACO SEASONED GROUND TURKEY" with a "Use by" date of 10/02/2018.
- 1-lb. packages of "Jennie-O GROUND TURKEY 85% LEAN | 15% FAT" with a "Use by" date of 10/02/2018.
- 1-lb. packages of "Jennie-O ITALIAN SEASONED GROUND TURKEY" with a "Use by" date of 10/02/2018.
The CDC released the following safety tips for preventing salmonella infection from raw turkey:
- Wash your hands before and after preparing and eating food.
- Cook raw turkey thoroughly to an internal temperature of 165°F. Leftovers should also be reheated to that temperature.
- Don't spread germs from raw turkey around food preparation areas.
- Thaw turkey in the refrigerator, sink or microwave. Do not thaw it by leaving it out on the counter.
- The CDC does not recommend feeding raw food to pets.