According to a news report from news.xinhuanet.com, “General Mills on Thursday recalled about five million frozen pepperoni pizzas sold in the U.S. under the Totino’s and Jeno’s labels because the pepperoni toppings on these pizzas may be tainted with E. coli bacteria.”
“The suburban Minneapolis-based company said the recall affects about 414,000 cases of pizza products currently in stores and all similar pizza products that might be in consumers’ freezers,” said the story. “We took action on that basis as a precaution, because of the possibility that a link might exist,” said General Mills spokesman Tom Forsythe. “However, to date we have found no E. coli in our plant, and we have found no E. coli in our products.” The problem was discovered after an investigation by the Tennessee Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into an outbreak of 21 cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).”