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Has anyone heard about the botulism in several brands of Georgia based Castlebury canned meats? First, it was just hot dog chili. Now it's beef stew, hash, chili beans, Mrs. Fearnows brunswick stew, heaven knows what else. Please, don't let Chef Boyardee be included next. I just ate a can(cold) of spaghetti with jumbo meatballs.

...AAAARGHHHHHHH.....

The list of canned items can be found on Castleberry's site at http://www.castleberrys.com/news_productrecall.asp,
USDA's site http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/ ... /index.asp
or the FDA's site
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/ ... tml#recall

Not to worry, Chef Boyardee products are processed at a ConAgra facility in Milton PA.

However, one should be aware and alert to the products involved in the Castleberry recall. At last report (yesterday), a good portion of the recalled products are still on the shelves of many stores as the stores have not received any "official" notification to pull the products off of the shelves. It should also be noted that the Castleberry and Morton House brands of canned products are often found on the shelves of discount stores like Big Lots (for a national chain example) and on the shelves of local/regional grocery discount chains.

DangerousDave wrote:Has anyone heard about the botulism in several brands of Georgia based Castlebury canned meats? First, it was just hot dog chili. Now it's beef stew, hash, chili beans, Mrs. Fearnows brunswick stew, heaven knows what else. Please, don't let Chef Boyardee be included next. I just ate a can(cold) of spaghetti with jumbo meatballs.

I heard on the news last night that the recall had been expanded from the original dates of April-May, 2007 to the past two years. That may or may not really be the case (our local news teams aren't exactly crack reporters) so you might want to check the official list to be sure.

Bummer...I really liked that Castleberry Chili, too.

Castleberry currently has the dates listed as Best By APR30 2009 through MAY22 2009. Haven't heard of the recall being expanded yet.

kman wrote:I heard on the news last night that the recall had been expanded from the original dates of April-May, 2007 to the past two years. That may or may not really be the case (our local news teams aren't exactly crack reporters) so you might want to check the official list to be sure.

Bummer...I really liked that Castleberry Chili, too.

I did a little searching and according to this notice on the FDA's website:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01670.html

the list of recalled products has been expanded and while the initial recall was limited to Best By dates from April to May, 2009, the recall now covers all the listed products regardless of the dates.

Many thanks for the update. Indeed it looks like the recall has been expanded to all dates and has also expanded to include additional products that are processed from that facility. It doesn't look like the information has filtered down to all retailers yet, as I saw some of these products still on the shelves as recently as late yesterday afternoon.

As an additional note, Castleberry does have an online Refund Request Form posted at http://www.castleberrys.com/RecallRefund for customers who may be impacted.

I would guess that people who bought Cattle Drive Chicken Chili with Beans from Costco will getting a letter in the mail soon requesting that they return any cans of that product to the warehouse for a full refund. Costco is very good about tracking the purchases of their members and gets these letters out pretty quick.

kman wrote:I did a little searching and according to this notice on the FDA's website:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01670.html

the list of recalled products has been expanded and while the initial recall was limited to Best By dates from April to May, 2009, the recall now covers all the listed products regardless of the dates.