Following recalls of various chicken products from local stores, Alberta Health Services wants to make sure you know the signs of contamination. 

This comes after several chicken products were pulled from shelves by Loblaws due to a risk of Salmonella.

(Photo Courtesy: Canadian Food Inspection Agency)

A flavour of Goldfish Crackers and Ritz Sandwiches were also recalled for the same reason.

Dr Sarah Nunn with the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services shares some of the symptoms that can come with a foodborne illness.

“Some of the most common signs of foodborne illness may be somebody feeling lethargic, nausea. There could even be vomiting or diarrhea. The symptoms will vary depending on what the organism is that’s actually affecting that person.”

Despite the recent recalls, Dr Nunn says they haven’t seen an increase in reported cases of illnesses.

“Our instances of foodborne illness usually go up through the summer months so we usually have more through the summer but this year is very consistent to last year too so we haven’t noticed really an increase in those cases.”

Although recalls are handled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, AHS still has a role to play in finding out what bacteria is causing an illness.

“We always investigate every source and when we find out what an organism is, that gives us an idea about the kinds of products we’re looking at and the timelines we’re looking at in order to do our investigation.”

On top of being aware of symptoms from contaminated food, Dr Nunn also urges you to be careful when cooking including preventing cross-contamination of food to prevent getting sick.

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