Food Recall Hits Our Family With No Ill Effects

All the while the Castleberry food recall has been in the news these past couple of weeks, I have been sort of relieved that it did not affect us. When I heard about the recall, I just thought, here we go again, but because we eat virtually no commercially canned foods, I never really gave much thought to what might be hiding in our cupboards. Then yesterday we received a letter from Costco informing us that we had recently purchased an 8 pack of Cattle Drive Chili. Anyway, so much for my smug confidence that we were not affected by the recall. Out to the storeroom I went and indeed there it was on the shelf! Four of the eight cans were gone, but the last time I checked all the kids were healthy. The letter stated the product had been recalled because of possible contamination, but that no contamination had been found as of the date of the letter. Hmm, erring on the side of caution, I guess.

It seems to me that these food problems are getting out of control. I do plan a future post on the safety of our food supply as a whole, but, when it comes to commercially prepared and canned foods, I wonder if the problem is really any worse than it has been. Perhaps, as with many other issues, the publicity surrounding individual problems is just better and more widespread. In any case, our brush with the poison chili points out that even whole food eating folks like us need to pay close attention to the food recalls and news stories. You never know what someone else in the household might be purchasing! I know my initial thought that we would not have any of that type of food in the house proved wrong this time. Fortunately the batch of chili the kids had eaten seems not to have been contaminated.

Still, I do think I will toss the remaining four cans!