Federal officials say the listeriosis outbreak caused by hackberry is over.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported five cases in four states: California, Nevada, Michigan and New Jersey. No deaths occurred, but all five patients required hospitalization.
“The number of people who actually got sick in this outbreak is likely higher than what has been reported, and the outbreak may not be confined to states with known illness. “This is because people in some parts of the country recover without medical care or are not tested for Listeria,” the CDC said.
The Food and Drug Administration has identified enoki mushrooms distributed by Utopia Foods Inc., Glendale, New York, imported from China and labeled “Producer: Shandong Youhe Biotechnology, Co.” with a Chinese address and “Distributor: Sun Hong Foods, Inc.” In this epidemic, it may be the cause of illness.
Enoki mushrooms have been of increasing interest to public health officials in recent years.In 2022, they were one of the most recalled foods in the United States. The CDC recommends against eating raw enoki mushrooms because they can be contaminated with listeria. In addition, the agency recommends that no one in high-risk groups eat them at all. High-risk groups include children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems. will be
“Many samples of hackberry were found to be contaminated with various strains of Listeria, including two outbreak strains. Quantitative method) was performed and a large amount of Listeria was detected.
Due to the spate of recalls of imported enoki mushrooms in recent years, the FDA added Chinese enoki mushrooms to the import alert, essentially blocking the importation of these mushrooms. As noted in the Import Alert, FDA’s Office of Import may subject shipments of enoki mushrooms from South Korea and China to detention without physical examination.
“Furthermore, following the 2020 outbreak associated with hackberry, FDA implemented the Strategy to Prevent Listeriosis and Salmonellosis Outbreaks Associated with Imported Hackberry and Imported Wood Ear Fungus to protect public health. It was started. This preventive strategy is a positive and intentional approach taken by FDA and stakeholders to limit or prevent future outbreaks associated with specific FDA-regulated foods,” FDA reported in its outbreak update. Did.
Before and during the end of the outbreak, Listeria was detected in samples from multiple states, leading to 18 recalls in the United States from 2021 onwards. Eight of the recalls involved enoki mushrooms grown in South Korea. From China, confirmed by labeling, traceback or whole-genome sequencing.
During this time, the FDA sampled and analyzed 127 enoki shipments imported from China and found 18 to be in violation, with a violation rate of over 14%. The effort identified 15 of at least 37 companies declared to have exported enoki mushrooms from China to the United States with offending products.
In 2020, at least 36 people died in 17 states, and 31 of them were hospitalized. Four deaths and two fetal deaths were recorded.
The fad has just endedthe CDC reports that samples of sick people were collected from October 5, 2022 to February 3, 2023.
In November 2021, the FDA found Listeria monocytogenes in one of the enoki mushroom samples collected at the time of importation. The enoki mushrooms were crushed. The listeria in this sample was genetically closely related to the listeria monocytogenes that made people sick in this outbreak. was not identified as
In January 2023, the FDA discovered an outbreak strain of Listeria in an imported sample of Utopia Foods brand enoki mushrooms. These enoki mushrooms were imported from China. On January 13, 2023, Utopia Foods expanded its recall of existing enoki mushrooms.
In December 2022, Missouri officials discovered one of the outbreak strains of Listeria in a sample of enoki mushrooms produced by Shandong Yuwa Biotechnology Co., Ltd. January 2023, Maryland Department of Health
Both outbreak strains were found in two samples of hackberry produced by the same company in China.
“While this outbreak investigation is closed, CDC and FDA are working to understand the risk of Listeria contamination of enoki mushrooms,” the CDC reports.
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