NAPLES, Italy — The commissary at the Navy base in Gricignano temporarily has stopped stocking fresh chicken received from an Italian poultry plant after a routine inspection more than a week ago found traces of bacteria in the plant’s water supply, U.S. and Italian officials said.
A routine inspection by the U.S. Army’s veterinarian services in Naples turned up traces of coliform bacteria in the water used to power wash chicken carcasses after the poultry is plucked and gutted, said Giorgio Capuzzo, an inspector with the Army’s Southern European Veterinary District Command, based in Vicenza.
Coliform bacteria is common and found in the intestinal tract of warm-blooded animals, he said.
There are several types of coliform bacteria — one of which is the Escherichia coli, or E. coli, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. Coliforms mostly are harmless bacteria that live in soil and water and the guts of humans and animals. The bacteria is associated with human and animals waste, and their presence in water is a strong indication of recent sewage or animal waste contamination, the agency Web site states.
The traces found at the Arena Poultry plant are not likely to pose a risk to humans if chickens are properly handled, Capuzzo said.
“Because chicken is consumed after cooking, any normal cooking would kill the bacteria and would not present a problem for humans,” he said.
No traces of the bacteria were found in subsequent daily testing of the water supply by Italian and U.S. inspectors, Capuzzo said.
Base officials decided to temporarily suspend the contract with Arena, located in Bojano in south central Italy, as a precaution, Capuzzo said. However, Arena- supplied chicken already on the commissary’s shelves were not recalled, he said.
Supplies to the commissary could restart following another “audit,” though Capuzzo did not know when that might happen.
The Naples community was alerted publicly of the matter Friday through a message in the base newspaper’s weekly “Captain’s Corner” column by the base commanding officer, Capt. Floyd Hehe.
“Although there won’t be a supply of fresh chicken for a while, there’s proof positive that the testing done is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do and keeping the food supply up to code,” Hehe wrote. No press releases were issued by Navy or commissary public affairs alerting Naples residents of the issue.
