Salmonella Returns, This Time to Hummus

YERUSHALAYIM
Hummus (Flash 90)
Hummus. (Flash90)

The second salmonella scare to hit Israel in two weeks was revealed Thursday morning, when the Shamir salad company issued a recall for several of its tehina and hummus salads, samples of which were found to contain salmonella bacteria.

The bacteria was found in the raw tehina manufactured from sesame seeds and oil, and used for tehina and hummus salads. The recall involves thousands of hummus, tehina and eggplant salads that the tainted ingredients were used in. All have manufactured and/or sell-by dates of September 2016.

The company said that all other salads that did not contain hummus or tehina were perfectly safe. Likewise, the salads that were not within the dates specified were fine as well.

In yet a second tehina-related salmonella incident revealed Thursday, the Health Ministry said that it would destroy 200 tons of raw tehina manufactured by Nesich, after it was found to contain salmonella bacteria. The tehina is produced at the company’s factory for manufacturers, and is likely to lead to other recalls, as some of the tehina may have been released to manufacturers. The Ministry did not say if the Shamir incident was related to the Nesich-tainted tehina.

Meanwhile, a report said that Unilever Israel had found a use for the 120 tons of cereals that were languishing in their warehouses, after being discovered several weeks ago to be contaminated with salmonella. According to the report, the cereal will be used to fuel ovens that are used to manufacture cement. The cereal will be used instead of the oil or waste materials that are usually used to power the ovens that heat up limestone to a very high temperature to manufacture cement.

The solution was decided upon as an alternative to dumping the salmonella or burning it in a sanitation facility, for fear that the fumes of an open flame could spread salmonella germs. The ovens used for manufacturing cement are enclosed, so it is likely that the bacteria will die after being subjected to the high temperatures and left in the enclosed space for several days, the report said.

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