Almost two million eggs have been recalled in the United States over concerns of salmonella contamination.
The recall, announced on Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, affects products distributed in nine states and is associated with various grocery store chains.
According to the FDA, California-based August Egg Company of Hilmar is recalling 1,700,000 dozen brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs due to potential contamination.
The eggs were distributed from February 3 through May 15, with sell-by dates from March 4 to June 4, within California and Nevada.
Products were distributed at locations including Save Mart, FoodMaxx, Lucky, Smart & Final, Safeway, Raleys, Food 4 Less, and Ralphs.
Eggs were also distributed from February 3 through May 6 with sell-by dates from March 4 to June 19 to Walmart locations in California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, Indiana, and Illinois.
The recalled eggs will have the plant code number P-6562 or CA5330 printed on the carton or package, with Julian Dates between 32 and 126. The recalled retail eggs will be in fiber or plastic cartons, with the above codes printed on one side of the carton.
Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, the frail or elderly, and others with weakened immune systems, according to the FDA.
Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and even bloody diarrhea.
In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in more severe illnesses.
A statement from August Egg Company read: “It is important to know that when our processing plant identified this concern, we immediately began diverting all eggs from the plant to an egg-breaking facility, which pasteurizes the eggs and kills any pathogens.
“August Egg Company’s internal food safety team is also conducting its own stringent review to identify what measures can be established to prevent this situation from recurring.
“We are committed to addressing this matter fully and to implementing all necessary corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again.”
