Tainted Turkey? Call In The Flacks

Wampler Foods, a unit of poultry producer Pilgrim's Pride, has hired Edelman PR Worldwide to help handle a recall crisis, according to O'Dwyer's PR. Over the weekend, Pilgrim's Pride recalled 27.4 million pounds of cooked sandwich meat, primarily sold under the Wampler brand. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have traced a deadly strain of listeria bacteria to a Pilgrim's Pride plant in Franconia, Pennsylvania. This is the largest meat recall in U.S. history. The strain is blamed for at least seven deaths, 46 illnesses and three miscarriages since early summer. O'Dwyer's reports, "Wampler issued a statement following the CDC report stressing that 'no illnesses associated with the listeria strain in the Northeastern U.S. outbreak have been linked to any Wampler products.' The company said listeria often occurs naturally in the environment."