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The additive, hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HVP, is used in thousands of foods but so far has not been linked to any illness and currently presents a low risk to consumers, according to FDA officials.
But the agency isn't taking any chances. It has asked food producers to check inventories for products that used recalled lots of HVP and has established a searchable consumer database for what it predicted would be a growing list of recalled foods.
To check if a food item has been recalled, go to FDA.gov.
Only a few specific brands of chip dip, salad dressing, soup mixes and other foods have been recalled since the contamination was discovered last month, but "we expect this to get larger over the next several days to several weeks," said Jeff Farrar, FDA associate commissioner of food safety.
As of Friday morning, the list includes several dips manufactured by T. Marzetti, Sweet Maui Onion potato chips manufactured by Tim's Cascade Snacks, Tortilla Soup mix made by Homemade Gourmet and several prepackaged "Follow Your Heart" tofu meals manufactured by Earth Island.
The tainted HVP was made at a plant operated by Basic Food Flavors Inc. of Las Vegas and was discovered when a company customer tested a batch of the additive and reported finding salmonella.
FDA inspectors subsequently discovered salmonella bacteria on plant equipment. Basic Food subsequently announced a recall of all paste and powdered versions of HVP manufactured since Sept. 17, 2009.
Company president Kanu Patel did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
The FDA identified the salmonella's genetic fingerprint, enabling the Centers for Disease Control to confirm that this strain has not caused illness so far.
Salmonella causes infections marked by diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal pain. Healthy people generally recover without treatment, but salmonella can kill the very young, the elderly and people with weak immune systems.
Officials said the HVP was shipped in batches of 50 pounds or more but they didn't know how much tainted product the company shipped. Farrar said most of the tainted additive would not be harmful because it was used in food preparation processes involving high heat or other procedures that would kill the salmonella bacteria.
Additionally, the ingredient, which is made of soy, corn and wheat, typically appears in very small quantities in individual food items. The lack of illnesses traceable to the contaminated additive points to a relatively low risk, Farrar said.
But underscoring the potential seriousness of the outbreak, both FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and the agency's No. 2 official, Joshua Sharfstein, spoke at a telephone press conference.
Sharfstein said FDA reacted quickly, but he and Hamburg said the incident highlighted the need for passage of pending food safety legislation that would give the agency more tools to prevent outbreaks instead of reacting to them.
That legislation has been stalled in the Senate since last fall. It would give FDA the power to order recalls on its own authority, instead of pressuring firms to do so.
Robert Brackett, chief science officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a leading food trade group, lauded FDA for avoiding a push for a wholesale recall.
The FDA has left it up to the food industry to determine if a particular product has been made in a way that would kill salmonella contamination, Brackett said.
In addition, it'll be up to companies to decide whether to keep a product on the market if the consumer preparation process, such as boiling of a soup mix, would kill salmonella, he said.
FDA is focusing on "those products that are the greatest risk," Brackett said.
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