The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Campbell Soup Company recalled 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs last week. I cannot imagine 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs ever being produced, but Campbell had a cooker malfunction that undercooked the meatballs.
To be more specific, the recall includes three varieties of SpaghettiOs: SpaghettiOs with Meatballs, SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs, and SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars). Learning SpaghettiOs has so many different varieties tells me how long it’s been since my wife and I had kids around the house.
When reading the newspaper headline, “Campbell recalls SpaghettiOs product,” my first thought was ‘here we go again, another food recall – what’s going on with the safety of our food in this country?’ Upon reading the whole story, however, I realized the recall is actually being extremely cautious in the name of food safety, which is as it should be. Most recalls, if you read beyond the headline, are similar.
The USDA said there are no reports of illness associated with consumption of these products, and Campbell has received no customer complaints either. To ensure food safety, the ground beef meatballs are undoubtedly cooked extremely well done – the undercooking caused by the malfunction with the cooker probably far exceeds how long most of us cook ground beef.
While Campbell feels there are about 35,000 cases of SpaghettiOs subject to the recall on the market right now, the USDA recalled SpaghettiOs manufactured since December of 2008 – again being extremely cautious. If you have SpaghettiOs in your pantry, the recalled products have “EST 4K” as well as a use-by date between June 2010 and December 2011 printed on the bottom of the can.
Chances are if you prepared spaghetti and meatballs the same way as prepared by the malfunctioning cooker at Campbell’s, the meal would be totally safe. Unfortunately, your kids would not like it because it’s not “Mmm Mmm Good.” They don’t like homemade spaghetti and meatballs; they only like SpaghettiOs and Meatballs.
(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Campbell Soup Company recalled 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs last week. I cannot imagine 15 million pounds of SpaghettiOs ever being produced, but Campbell had a cooker malfunction that undercooked the meatballs.
To be more specific, the recall includes three varieties of SpaghettiOs: SpaghettiOs with Meatballs, SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs, and SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars). Learning SpaghettiOs has so many different varieties tells me how long it’s been since my wife and I had kids around the house.
When reading the newspaper headline, “Campbell recalls SpaghettiOs product,” my first thought was ‘here we go again, another food recall – what’s going on with the safety of our food in this country?’ Upon reading the whole story, however, I realized the recall is actually being extremely cautious in the name of food safety, which is as it should be. Most recalls, if you read beyond the headline, are similar.
The USDA said there are no reports of illness associated with consumption of these products, and Campbell has received no customer complaints either. To ensure food safety, the ground beef meatballs are undoubtedly cooked extremely well done – the undercooking caused by the malfunction with the cooker probably far exceeds how long most of us cook ground beef.
While Campbell feels there are about 35,000 cases of SpaghettiOs subject to the recall on the market right now, the USDA recalled SpaghettiOs manufactured since December of 2008 – again being extremely cautious. If you have SpaghettiOs in your pantry, the recalled products have “EST 4K” as well as a use-by date between June 2010 and December 2011 printed on the bottom of the can.
Chances are if you prepared spaghetti and meatballs the same way as prepared by the malfunctioning cooker at Campbell’s, the meal would be totally safe. Unfortunately, your kids would not like it because it’s not “Mmm Mmm Good.” They don’t like homemade spaghetti and meatballs; they only like SpaghettiOs and Meatballs.
(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)
