Bil Mar Foods
In the US in 1998, Bil Mar Foods, part of the Sara Lee Corporation, sold hot dogs and cold cut meats infected with listeria. It was reported that 100 people became ill, 21 people died and 6 women suffered miscarriages after consuming the contaminated food. It was suggested that one reason the listeria outbreak had such awful consequences was because the purchased meats were probably not cooked to a safe temperature, if cooked at all, before consumption. Cooking the meats would most likely have destroyed the listeria bacteria responsible for the outbreak. Although Bil Mar Foods voluntarily recalled potentially affected products, by 1999 the outbreak had reached horrendous proportions. Investigations into the cause of the contamination suggested that the destruction of a refrigeration unit in 1998 caused the listeria to spread throughout the meat processing facility.