Campbell Soup Co. recalls 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs, cites possible undercooking

[Ed Barrow]

Source: Associated Press

Campbell Soup Co. is recalling 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs with meatballs after a cooker malfunctioned at one of the company's plants in Texas and left the meat undercooked.

...

Recalled are certain lots of three varieties of the pasta product often consumed by children: SpaghettiOs with Meatballs, SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs, and SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars).

The USDA said there are no reports of illnesses associated with the product and Sanzio said the company has received no customer complaints to date.

The recalled products have "EST 4K," as well as a use-by date between June 2010 and December 2011 printed on the bottom of the can. The products were manufactured between December 2008 and June 2010 and distributed to retail establishments nationwide.


Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/sns-ap-us-spaghettios-recall,0,3568131.story

[AnnieBW]

1. Uh-oh, SpaghettiO's!

Well, SOMEONE had to say it!

[SocialistLez]

10. Aww man, I thought I was going to be the first.

I'm so glad I stopped eating those.

The sodium content is ridiculous.

[Mz Pip]

2. Indercooking might not

be a bad thing. Those things are already cooked beyond recognition as pasta.

[madrchsod]

3. no one chartered the cooker temps?

no maintenance from dec 08 till june 2010? no batch quality control? that plant must be a shithole to work at..

[Nikia]

30. When cook temperature is vital to food safety, that is required

Their quality department must be quite ignorant and/or negligent to not be doing that considering that it would be a crital control point and one of the most important things. Since it is a critical control point, it should have been something that any federal or state inspectors, third party auditors, and corporate quality personnel would have checked if they visited the plant, which should have happened earlier than 18 months. It isn't as if this isn't a necessary practice in a huge number of plants either, that a less experienced inspector wouldn't know that he or she needed to check.

[madrchsod]

35. i worked at a dry mix facility that checked every batch we made

we audited every bag we used, cleaned everything at the end of the shift, and sanitized the work area twice a month. this is what we did just for dry mixes. we were told that one mistake on an order can cost the company that contract and may effect other contracts with that company.

[saigon68]

36. Un REAL how the hell can you get away without records etc

No One apparently was steering the Titanic through the North Atlantic.

The stockholders (like good capitalists) should demand that HEADS ROLL

LOL

[AsahinaKimi]

4. I wonder if their

Clam chowder will be next?

[UpInArms]

5. manufactured between December 2008 and June 2010

and it's now June 2010 - so for the past 18 months??????

....guess we don't check these things much...????

[OhioChick]

6. Don't you just love how they come out with these recalls years after the fact? n/t

[UpInArms]

7. seems a repeating pattern - and it's not pretty

and 18 months into the gig, they say "no one reported a related illness"

and who would know to say it was the freakin' Spaghetti-Os?

:grr:

[Nikia]

32. That's incredibly long

Up to a couple of weeks still is concerning, but might be understandable through a series of mistakes and miscommunication. 18 months suggests that for a long time people, likely several of them, just didn't give a crap about what was going out the door. Since temperature is one of the most important things in an operation like this, it makes you wonder what else could have been wrong with their product.

[saigon68]

37. RAT Droppings insect parts etc in the cans too

Extra Protein

[Dappleganger]

8. Well that stuff is poison anyway

But still!

[Iowa]

9. It's hard to believe anybody actually eats that crap.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. If you're a single parent

and you're exhausted from another day at the grind, and you don't have the energy to fix a complete meal, and you don't want to waste a lot of money at a hamburger joint, and you need to pacify screaming rugrats, then spaghetti-in-a-can can be a godsend.

[The Magistrate]

18. And The Hell Of It Is, Sir, They Actually Seem To Like The Stuff....

[Art_from_Ark]

19. Speaking as one of those former rugrats

:evilgrin:

Back then, it was made by Franco-American. I wonder if the taste has changed since then?

[Jamastiene]

24. Yes, the taste has changed. It is NOWHERE NEAR as good as it once was.

I miss the Franco-American days of Spaghettios. The Franco-American Spaghettios were practically crack in a can for me as a kid. The Campbell's version of it is watered down in comparison, not nearly as good.

Sorry for all the edits. One day I will learn to type entire sentences, lol.

[crim son]

38. None of my kids would ever eat it.

Nor will they now despite the fact that I'm a single parent. I'm never *that* tired.

[Endangered Specie]

11. SpaghettiOhhh my stomach hurts!

[kestrel91316]

12. Botulism waiting to happen. If cooking temps and pressures were inadequate to

even cook the meat, they were beyond adequate to allow Clostridium botulinum to survive.

Campbell Soup Co. is a douche. This is disgusting and inexcusible.

[kestrel91316]

13. EIGHTEEN MONTHS' of production was potentially poisonous with botulism.

This is what happens when you gut the FDA and USDA inspection programs.

[Divine Discontent]

14. wow... just sick! horrible that it went on so LONG. sounds like we're gonna get a Keith or Rachel

segment coming from this - or should! To have to admit to undercooking food for a year and a half is shameful... just shameful!

[Nikia]

31. It is amazing that it wasn't caught by inspectors

The plant that I work at is considered low risk and I know that we see that state inspector at least once per year. When I worked in cheese, it was more often. Temperature charting is something that any inspector should have checked. It makes you wonder if there were no inspections or if there was but that their inspection was inadequate.

[kestrel91316]

34. Probably no inspections. Bush gutted the inspection programs, and

made what inspectors there are afraid to act. The higher ups were Bush appointees and they looked the other way on violations.

[6000eliot]

16. 14,999,999 lbs. of it was high fructose corn syrup.

[Frank Booth]

17. SpaghettiOs are delicious and nutritious, but I must make the point

that the SpaghettiOs with Franks taste much better than the SpaghettiOs with Meatballs.

[Jamastiene]

25. For me, it depends on my mood.

I agree that the franks taste better, unless I'm in the mood for the meatballs. It seems there is more garlic in the meatballs.

[ProudDad]

20. 15,000,000 pounds of Spaghettios is a scary concept all by itself (n/t)

[Scuba]

21. Hey, just let the 'free hand' of the market work its magic....

...after a few thousand people die from eating the product, consumers will switch to another product. Or maybe the same product with a different label. We don't need no stinking regulation.

[depakid]

22. Texas- same state where Peanut Corporation of America operated an unlicensed, uninspected plant

and where managers and executives have walked away scot free- despite mountains of evidence that they knowingly distributed contaminated products all across the nation- and into other countries, too.

At least 9 attributable deaths, tens of thousands of people sickened and countless businesses that actually followed the rules damaged at the worst possible time.

[Nikia]

33. You wonder if they had an inspection during that time

If they did, it was completely inadequate since checking temperature records and tempearture recording in process should have been at the top of theit list.
I work at a fairly low risk plant in Wisconsin and we are inspected at least once per year. When I was in cheese, it was more often.

[Jamastiene]

23. Oh, damn! I'm surprised I'm not dead already.

I damn near live off those. :scared:

[sendero]

26. Wow...

.... a malfunctioning cooker went undetected for 18 months? That is scary.

[Vinca]

27. No need to waste them.

Send you Spaghettios to BP for a real "junk shot."

[Jamastiene]

28. Stupid question about recalls:

What do I do with these two cans of Spaghettios with Meatballs I just rummaged out of the cabinet?

They have the "U5" and "EST 4K" and the "Use by" date just like the site says.

I wondered why the Spaghettios have bee tasting so different and bland and downright icky compared to normal.

:puke:

[Jamastiene]

39. Kicking because I have 2 cans sitting out and I keep forgetting about the recall.

Sooner or later, my dumb, drunk ass is going to forget about the recall again and eat a can. It's a matter of life or death at this point.

Do I just trash them?

[bitchkitty]

29. Gourmands the world over are dismayed. n/t