Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The Food and Drug Administration says a bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes has appeared and reappeared on the Stewart production line, tainting sandwiches destined for hundreds of East Coast outlets.
L. mono, as the bacteria is called, is a persistent bug that, when introduced into an already weak immune system, can inflict severe illness, such as meningitis or serious blood infections.
L. mono causes about 1,700 illnesses a year, with a fatality rate of 25 percent, said Dr. Robert Pinner, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
While the FDA has not attributed any cases of illness to Stewart products, the bacteria has shown up in food shipped to Florida and Louisiana - and repeatedly in the plant itself.
On May 31, the federal government asked the U.S. District Court in Norfolk to temporarily shut down Stewart's 22-year-old operation. Attorneys for the company will seek to block the move in a hearing scheduled for Friday.
"If you stop production for a week or two, you won't have your accounts," said Ronald M. Gates, the company's attorney. "They'd be out of business."
In Hampton Roads, some clients already have dropped the product.
But the company's financial troubles began before the bacteria was detected last year. In three of the last five years for which the complete results are available, the company has operated in the red. An FDA inspection last year "revealed ...clogged floor drains, standing water in the kitchen and cheese room, condensation water from overhead air conditioner dropping on sandwich make-up lines," said Thomas L. Hooker, director of the FDA's Baltimore office, said in a deposition for the pending case.
None of those conditions were evident last week, and since Monday, the company has tested each shipment of food that leaves the plant.
by CNB