Connors Bros expands voluntary recall

The extended recall includes several chili, beef stew, and other canned meat products as well as four pet food products with all "best by" and code dates. The recall originally announced on July 18 affected only "best by" dates from APR30 2009 through MAY22 2009 on 10 products.

The expanded recall includes two Great Value chili products which are sold in Canada only. These products are not sold or distributed in the U.S. Great Value chili products sold in Canada are not affiliated with the Great Value brand of products in the United States. The Great Value brand in the United States is not associated with Castleberry's, Connors Bros. Income Fund, nor this recall.

Castleberry's has been working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to execute the Canadian portion of the recall and the CFIA has issued a "Health Hazard Alert" to notify consumers of the recall and details on how the product should be handled. This is a precautionary move to protect our consumers as there has been no reported illnesses linked to these products in Canada.

"There is nothing more important to us than the health of those who use our products every day," says Steve Mavity, SVP Technical Services/Quality Assurance for Castleberry's. "We are taking every step necessary, and are working hand in hand with health officials around the clock, to ensure the safety of our consumers."

Mavity says, "We believe we have isolated the issue to a situation of under-processing on one line of our production facility. As an extra precaution to the recall we announced on Wednesday, we have shut down this line altogether and are recalling all products produced on it."

Castleberry's is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate possible contamination of these products with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.

Castleberry's was notified by the FDA of two confirmed botulism cases and two potential botulism cases involving individuals who ate the Hot Dog Chili Sauce products. No new cases have been reported since the recall was announced on July 18. There have been no reported illnesses linked to canned pet foods.