Nine LI schools served products recalled by USDA for possible listeria contamination

Nine Long Island schools are among at least 200 nationwide that received meat and poultry that are part of a recall due to possible contamination with listeria, a dangerous and potentially deadly bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an Island school district announced.

The six Long Island schools identified by the USDA are: The two campuses of Roosevelt Children’s Academy Charter School in Roosevelt; Brooklyn Avenue, Robert W. Carbonaro and William L. Buck schools in Valley Stream; and New Hyde Park Road School in New Hyde Park.

Three schools in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District that are not on the list — Garden City Park, Hillside and Manor Oaks schools — also served recalled products, the district's superintendent, Jennifer Morrison-Raptis, wrote in an Oct. 11 letter to parents.

The USDA called its list of schools "preliminary" and is continuing to try to identify which schools received the product, the agency said late Thursday. The list is as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Nationwide, no illnesses related to the recalled products — which were processed in an Oklahoma manufacturing plant operated by Oregon-based BrucePac — have been confirmed, the USDA said. The USDA announced the recall of nearly 12 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry on Oct. 9, after the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service discovered listeria during routine testing of BrucePac chicken products.

The recalled product served in the four New Hyde Park-Garden City Park schools is the Fajita Chicken Bowl, Rice, Bean & Tomato Salad that was served on Sept. 19, Morrison-Raptis said.

Valley Stream School District 24 Superintendent Unal Karakas said in a letter to parents on Oct. 11 that the affected product in its three schools is the Chicken with Barbecue Sauce meal that was served for lunch on Sept. 24. 

Roosevelt Children’s Academy Charter School could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Dr. Sophia Jan, chief of general pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, said in an email that most children who eat listeria-contaminated products have mild gastroenteritis, which include symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, fever, vomiting and muscle and joint pain. But they usually appear from 6 hours to 10 days after food consumption — with an average of 24 hours — so "given that the recalled products were served weeks ago, the risk of gastroenteritis is now very low for most children."

A more serious infection called invasive listeriosis has an incubation period of up to 28 days, with an average of 11, Jan said. It is most common in medically vulnerable people such as newborns, children with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and older adults, she said.

Invasive listeriosis is when the bacteria spread beyond the intestines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The potentially contaminated products were sent to stores nationwide in addition to schools.

Prepared salads, chicken wraps, pasta and rice dishes, burritos and other foods — containing the establishment numbers 51205 or P-51205 inside or under the USDA inspection mark — are affected by the recall and were sold by Costco, Target, Trader Joe’s and Walmart, among other retailers. A list of products is on the USDA website.

A separate listeria outbreak in Boar’s Head deli meats has killed at least 10 people and hospitalized nearly 50 since May. About 260 people die every year from listeria infections, the CDC says.

By David Olson

david.olson@newsday.com@DavidOlson11

David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.