Major Sausage Recall – What Texas Consumers Should Know

I would not be surprised in the slightest that if you showed me a copy of the "Texas Food Pyramid" it would look more like a crescent-curved sausage than it would an ancient Egyptian structure. Food takes on a whole different shape and a whole different meaning in Texas than it does anywhere else in the world.

And one of our major food groups is sausage. Sure there is great smoked sausage from the Texas hill country but when you get in and around New Braunfels and that part of Texas, the sausage really kicks things up a notch

Needless to say, sausage is like an extra food group here in Texas. That's why when there is a recall of such a large amount of sausage, we Texans tend to pay attention.

The folks at the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service are now asking us to take a closer look at the sausage we are buying and may have purchased over the past few weeks. The FSIS has issued a recall on certain brands and specific sausage recipes over concerns about possible foreign matter contamination.

The foreign matter of concern consists of small pieces of hard plastic that could have been accidentally included as the product was going through the production process. The FSIS issued the recall after examining two consumer complaints that foreign material, hard plastic, had been discovered in packages of the sausage in question.

The product and brand of sausage that the Food Safety Inspection Service is recalling comes from the Johnsonville Brand of Sausages. In particular, the recall affects the 19-ounce sealed firm tray packages containing five pieces of "Johnsonville BRATS CHEDDAR Bratwurst". The packaging looks like this:

According to the USDA/FSIS recall it is believed that the affected items were shipped mainly to retail outlets in Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin, but it is possible that some of the product could have been distributed to other locales as well.

Consumers should check their freezers for products like this and if there is any question as to whether the product is safe or not you may call Johnsonville's Consumer Relations Coordinator by dialing 888-556-2728.

If you need to report a problem to the USDA or the Food Safety Inspection Service you may do that by using this link. It is available 24 hours a day seven days a week.