SE Minn. dairy co-op issues recall

A southeastern Minnesota milk processor is voluntarily recalling some products it sells to food companies because they might be contaminated with salmonella.

The Food and Drug Administration said the voluntary recall affects all instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers and gums that the Plainview Milk Products Cooperative has made in the past two years.

The FDA said Sunday that the co-op based in Plainview sold these products to other companies that may have used them in their products. None of Plainview's products were sold directly to the public, it said. The agency also said no human illnesses have been linked to potentially contaminated products from the facility, and it was unaware of any consumer products made with Plainview products being recalled.

Testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found salmonella bacteria in 100-gram packages of a dairy shake mix that was dry-blended by another manufacturer and not made for retail sale, the FDA said.

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Plainview Milk Products supplied nonfat dried milk for that mix, which also contained ingredients from other manufacturers, and it's not clear whether Plainview's product or another company's was the source of the contamination, company spokesman Glenn Karwoski said Monday.

While the FDA found no salmonella in any of Plainview's products, its inspectors found that some equipment at Plainview's facility was contaminated.

The cooperative said in a statement that it was disassembling all the equipment in question for cleaning. As an extra precaution, it recalled all products that ran through equipment used to produce the powdered milk and stopped production of the products in question.

"In situations like this, it's in the public's best interest to be overly cautious," Dallas Moe, the coop's general manager, said in the statement.

Plainview declined to name the company it supplied with the powdered milk, Karwoski said.

An FDA spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

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(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)