Furloughed Workers Recalled To Deal With Salmonella Outbreak

A major salmonella outbreak that has sickened 278 people in 18 states is a nightmare scenario during a government shutdown, prompting the Centers for Disease Control to put 30 workers back on the job.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service is unable to clearly identify the source of the outbreak, but says that it is looking at raw chicken produced by three Foster Farms plants in California as a likely source.

The CDC says the codes of the plants where the suspect chicken was produced — codes that can be found on the packaging — are:

Some food safety advocates are concerned that no recall has been issued.

Caroline Smith DeWaal , director of the food safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, tells Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti that it's "unclear" whether the shutdown has affected the response to the salmonella outbreak.

The USDA reminds consumers to be careful when handling raw poultry, to use clean surfaces and not to let raw chicken contact other food, and to cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.