Hard-Boiled Eggs Linked to Listeria Outbreak

The CDC is linking a deadly listeria outbreak in multiple states to hard-boiled eggs from an Almark Foods plant in Georgia. For those worried about getting sick, however, the warning is tricky. It involves eggs sold in bulk mainly to food-service operators, stores, and restaurants, meaning they might turn up in egg salads, deviled eggs, etc. The onus is on retailers to know where their eggs came from and to toss them if they're from the Almark plant. The safest advice for consumers if they have such products in the fridge and are unsure where the eggs came from is to throw them out. They might also check with store or restaurant managers before ordering egg products. That's especially true for the most vulnerable: pregnant women, those over 65, or people with cancer or compromised immune systems, per CNN. Newborns also are particularly vulnerable.

The outbreak has sickened seven people in five states—Florida, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas. Four were hospitalized and one died, reports the New York Times. In one case, a newborn was infected while the mother was pregnant, and the baby survived. The first three illnesses occurred in 2017, but the CDC didn't connect them to the Almark plant until an inspection this year turned up the problem. The eggs in question have a 49-day shelf life and were sold in plastic pails of various sizes. Almark says the FDA found listeria on the exterior of pails, not on eggs at the Georgia plant. The CDC has not issued a recall, but Almark has shut down the plant for sterilization. The warning does not affect hard-boiled eggs sold directly to consumers or eggs that vendors hard-boiled themselves. Listeria symptoms include fever and other flu-like symptoms. Details here. (More listeria stories.)