Month: December 2016

National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Okla., establishment, is recalling approximately 1,976,089 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken products because of adulteration because of possible undercooking, resulting in the potential survival of bacterial pathogens in the products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

The scope of this recall expansion now includes a variety of ready-to-eat chicken products that were produced on various dates from Aug. 20, 2016 through Nov. 30, 2016. The initial recall included 17,439 pounds of chicken.

The cases containing the products subject to recall bear establishment number “P-6010T” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to food service locations nationwide and were sold directly to retail consumers at the establishments’ monthly dock sale.

The basis for recalling additional product was discovered on Nov. 28, 2016, when a food service customer complained to the establishment that product appeared to be undercooked.

Below are the details of the originally recalled product:

• On Nov. 23, 2016 – National Steak and Poultry recalled approximately 17,439 pounds of ready-to-eat chicken products produced Oct. 4, 2016. The products were packaged on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, 2016. The following products are subject to recall:

• 5 lb. bags packed 2 bags per case; product labeled “Distributed by National Steak and Poultry, Owasso, OK Fully Cooked, Diced, Grilled Boneless Chicken Breast Meat with Rib Meat” with Lot code 100416, and Case Code: 70020.

• 5 lb. bags packed 2 bags per case; product labeled “Hormel Natural Choice 100% Natural No Preservatives Fully Cooked Roasted Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat Natural Smoke Flavor Added” with Lot code 100416, and Case code 702113.

• The cases containing the products subject to recall bear establishment number “P-6010T” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to food service locations nationwide and should not be in consumers’ possession. No other Hormel product is impacted. The original problem was discovered on Nov. 14, 2016, when a food service customer complained to the establishment that product appeared to be undercooked.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse health effects or illnesses due to consumption of any of the recalled products. Anyone concerned about a health effect should contact a healthcare provider.

Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls.

A longer product recall list is available linked to this site: www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2016/recall-115-2016-expanded.

by Meg Wingerter, KHI News Service

A spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Children and Families confirmed last week that a call center for child abuse reports had trouble keeping up with the volume of calls it received in September but denied the center had a “backlog.”

Foster care contractors learned of the issue in a Sept. 22 email sent by a DCF employee that said the call center was “experiencing a backlog in processing new reports of abuse or neglect, due to a severe staffing issue.”

The email asked family preservation workers with KVC Kansas, one of two foster care contractors, to use an online form for reporting child abuse and neglect instead of calling the Kansas Protection Reporting Center. The email has since been shared on social media and with KHI News Service.

Theresa Freed, spokeswoman for DCF, confirmed that the email did come from a DCF employee but said the call center wasn’t experiencing a “backlog.” She said she defined a backlog as employees being unable to answer or respond to calls.

“That is not the case and was not the case in September,” she said.

However, Freed said employees were “struggling to keep up with the volume of calls” in September, because school was back in session and teachers are required to report signs of abuse or neglect.

At that time the call center had employees assigned to follow up immediately on “priority” calls, such as when a child had suspicious bruises, and family preservation workers were asked to use the online system to keep phone lines open for members of the public, she said.

Freed didn’t respond to questions about staffing levels at the call center in September. According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, DCF said recently that the agency had 463 staff positions open.

A former employee who said she recently was fired from her job as a family preservation therapist for KVC Kansas and shared the DCF email on social media, said at times the call center staff didn’t call her back about a report for several days or never called back.

KVC officials declined to comment Friday on whether the former employee had worked there.

The former employee said she had difficulty getting someone from the call center on the phone for about a year. She said she never received a follow-up email indicating the call center backup had been resolved.

The online form also wasn’t an ideal situation when she was meeting with children, the former employee said, because she couldn’t easily set aside time to write a report.

Several recent child abuse cases have drawn attention to how DCF handles child abuse reports.

A Legislative Post Audit report released in July found DCF hadn’t always responded to calls in a timely manner from July 2013 to January 2016. Auditors took a sample of 40 cases that involved calls from more than one person and appeared to be high risk, based on the severity of the allegations.

In 30 cases, DCF followed up within the required time, which could be one day, three days or 20 days, based on the type of allegations. In five cases, staff didn’t follow up in time, and the evidence was unclear for the other five cases. The call center handled about 170,000 reports during that time period.

“Even though we found only five investigations where follow-up was not timely, that number is still concerning,” the audit report said. “That is because the report center is a primary method used to help ensure that child abuse and neglect reports are addressed.”

Freed said anyone who suspects a child is being abused or neglected should continue to call the reporting center at 800-922-5330.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/dcf-denies-backlog-at-child-abuse-call-center