Despite tainted food-related recall, pot pies stayed on some Davis County store shelves

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More than a week after ConAgra Foods Inc. recalled its frozen pot pies because of their link to a nationwide salmonellosis outbreak, some Davis County grocery stores had yet to remove the products from their shelves Friday.

Lewis Garrett, director of the Davis County Health Department, said of the 29 grocery stores visited last week, seven still had the recalled pot pies in their freezers.

"In this particular case there had been some oversight and some of those products were still on the shelf," he said. "We were a little dismayed to see that."

The seven stores included Winegar's Supermarket in Bountiful and Clearfield, Dick's Market in Bountiful and Centerville, Albertsons in Centerville, Dan's Foods in Layton and Bowman's Market in Kaysville.

Garrett pointed out, however, that those sickened with salmonellosis did not necessarily buy their frozen pot pies from these stores.

The nationwide recall of the pot pies began Oct. 11, when an outbreak of salmonellosis cases were linked to ConAgra products. So far, the frozen pot pies have been implicated in three cases of salmonellosis in Davis County. Garrett said they likely represent only a fraction of the actual number of cases.

"When we see cases that do go through that whole process [a doctor's visit and a lab test confirming salmonella] they're more like sentinel cases to let us know disease is spreading," he said.

The ongoing outbreak has sickened 238 people in 34 states, including Utah, where as of Friday 12 cases had been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While at least 50 people have been hospitalized nationwide, no deaths have been reported.

Richard Clark, regulatory services director for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said his department performs "recall effectiveness checks" to make sure recalled products are removed from stores.

A recent check for the frozen pot pies at random grocery stores did not reveal any were stocked, Clark said. However, there are 5,000 stores in the state and "we have a staff of 10. We don't get them all, but we do as many as we can in a period of time."

Clark said the pot pie recall is voluntary and that stores are not required to remove them.

"But these stores understand when they're asked to do it they need to do it because there is a very strong reason for it," he said.

Adam Johnson, Albertsons director of food safety, said the stores remove foods almost immediately after being notified of a recall. While the Utah store removed the chicken and turkey pot pies, it was not aware the beef pot pies were also included in the recall. However, Johnson said it's unlikely customers were able to leave the store with the beef pot pies because once a food is recalled its UPC code is removed from Albersons stores' computers, making it impossible to sell unless the cashier makes an override.

State health departments are collecting and testing pot pie products recovered from patients' homes, according to the CDC. To date, one pot pie yielded salmonella with a genetic fingerprint that matched the outbreak's strain.

lrosetta@sltrib.com