OMAHA — Critics say ConAgra Foods Inc.’s delay in recalling pot pies linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak increased the chance that more people would become sick, opened the company to greater liability and exposed a key weakness in the nation’s food-safety system: voluntary recalls.
“It’s clear that this recall wasn’t well-handled, and the outbreak may well grow,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s food-safety division.
ConAgra issued a health alert Tuesday and asked stores nationwide to stop selling Banquet and store-brand chicken and turkey pot pies, but the company didn’t recall the pies until Thursday evening.
Even though the pot pies made by ConAgra have been linked to at least 174 cases of salmonella in 32 states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not have the authority to require the company to recall the pot pies.
