CDC: A salmonella outbreak tracks to ramen and a restaurant food recalled in 32 states
An imported brand of wood ear mushrooms — also called dried fungus, black fungus or kikurage — got recalled after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced a 10-state salmonella outbreak to them.
The recalled 5-pound bags of Shirakiku brand Dried Fungus have “#60403” somewhere on the package, were imported by Wismettac Asian Foods and were sent to restaurants in 32 states, according to the FDA-posted recall notice. Only 10 states contributed to the 41 cases in this outbreak and 25 of those were in California.
When California’s Department of Public Health tested Shirakiku dried fungus from a restaurant where several people had eaten, it found salmonella. The CDC said of 18 people from which it got information, 16 had ramen in a restaurant the week before being sick (salmonella usually takes six hours to six days to hit).
Four “illness clusters,” two or more people who don’t live together but eat at the same place before getting sick, were found at restaurants serving ramen in three states. Eight of nine people linked to restaurant clusters ate the dried fungus or ramen with the dried fungus the week before salmonella struck.
The 32 states with restaurants getting wood ear mushrooms: Florida, California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington DC, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, plus the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Those with questions about this recall can email recall@wismettacusa.com.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "CDC: A salmonella outbreak tracks to ramen and a restaurant food recalled in 32 states."
