Simply Fresh Market, a Marietta, GA. processor is currently responding to an FSIS Public Health Alert.  At issue is a salad containing chicken, apples and walnuts produced during mid-January and sold as Simply Fresh Market™ chicken salad.  Given the sell-date of January 25th, the FSIS did not issue a recall but it is evident that product may still be in refrigerators. The salad that may have been contaminated with Listeria was distributed in the Atlanta metropolitan area.  It is evident that the production facility (P47170) will have to undergo thorough decontamination and an investigation should be undertaken to determine the source of Listeria in order that appropriate corrective action can be taken.  Once a plant has been implicated in foodborne listeriosis or if the presence of viable Listeria is determined products, an intensive program of surveillance is necessary.

Two episodes of listeriosis have been attributed to contamination in a plant producing hard-cooked eggs and the pathogen is frequently implicated in food-borne infection of dairy products and cold cuts.