Outbreaks prompt scrutiny of food labeling

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2008 | by Julie Schmit

Federal food-safety officials are considering whether labels on some frozen chicken products adequately inform consumers that the chicken is raw and provide sufficient cooking instructions.

Stuffed chicken entrees -- which look cooked because they're breaded and prebrowned so that the breading sticks -- are blamed for five salmonella outbreaks since 1998 that sickened 71 people, Minnesota health officials say. For every illness detected, more go unreported, officials say.

The latest outbreak, in Minnesota in March, occurred even though the products' labels changed more than a year ago to more explicitly state that the chicken is uncooked. "We've done everything we think is appropriate, but if consumer behavior hasn't changed, we have to deal with that," says...