U.S. probes egg recall amid calls for tighter rules

Reuters 08/23/2010 14:25

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner on Monday said there may be more recalls of eggs in the salmonella outbreak and the agency did not yet know how the eggs and chickens were contaminated.

"We don't know exactly how the contamination got into the chicken population, into the egg population, and we're not yet fully sure the extent of the recall that will be necessary to protect consumers," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We are in the midst of probably the largest egg recall that has happened in recent history," she said.

Her comments came after federal regulators on Friday said a second Iowa egg farm, Hillandale Farms of Iowa, voluntarily recalled eggs as part of a U.S. salmonella outbreak that is linked to almost 300 illnesses across the United States.

The Hillandale recall involves 170 million eggs, said Julie DeYoung, a company spokeswoman.

The other potential source is Iowa egg producer Wright County Egg, which recalled 380 million eggs last week.

That brings the total recall to 550 million eggs that were distributed in 22 states.

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