PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - The nation's largest meat recall left consumers and retailers wary Monday as workers at the closed Montgomery County, Pa., plant scrubbed machinery to remove potentially deadly listeria bacteria.

Wampler Foods Inc., of Franconia Township, Pa., is recalling 27.4 million pounds of turkey and chicken products, after finding listeria bacteria at the plant.

A recent outbreak of listeria sickened at least 120 people and killed 20 in the northeastern United States, but the strain of bacteria found at the Wampler plant is not the same one implicated in the outbreak.

"We don't have any scientific evidence at this point that there is a connection, but our analysis of sampling in that plant is not complete," said the Steven Cohen of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The repercussions of the recall were felt both in the food markets and stock markets.

The stock price of Wampler's parent company, Pilgrim's Pride, the nation's second-largest poultry company, plunged 24.7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

Supermarkets removed Wampler products from shelves, and shoppers said they were trying to avoid the company's products.

"Regardless of whether or not it was recalled, products that came from that plant were taken off the shelf," said Walter Rubel, spokesman for grocery chain Acme.

Barry Scher, vice president of public affairs at Giant Food said the store only carried one product line, a roasted boneless turkey breast, which was immediately taken away.

"We have sent out alerts to our stores and warehouses with the list of products and asked them to pull and isolate and tag," said Patti Councill, communications manager for Super Fresh's parent, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company.

"I'm not really a lunch-meat eater, but I won't be buying Wampler now," said Helen Smith, a retiree from Quakertown, Pa. She was shopping at the Clemens Family Market in Conshohocken, Pa., which recently pulled Wampler's products from shelves at its 19 stores in the region.

As Lisa Lamason of Lafayette Hill, Pa., loaded her groceries and baby into a minivan, she said the listeria contamination vindicated her policy against purchasing processed meats.

Workers at the Wampler plant Monday were "scrubbing walls and breaking some of the equipment down to its most basic level to make sure it's thoroughly cleaned" with disinfectants, said Pilgrim's Pride CEO David Van Hoose, who came to Franconia from the company's Texas headquarters.

The bacteria was detected in conveyor belt and drainage areas of the plant, though Van Hoose said it could be present elsewhere, too. None of the company's meat products had turned up traces of listeria, he said.

Van Hoose said he hoped cleaning would be finished by Tuesday. He said the plant would not reopen until officials were satisfied it was clean.

Listeria bacteria is found in soil and water, said Catherine Cutter, a food safety extension specialist at Pennsylvania State University. Animals can carry the bacteria without getting sick.

If meat is cooked to 160 degrees, the bacteria will be killed, said Cutter. However, in processing plants, listeria can find its way back into the cooked product before it is packaged, she said.

"It likes cold and damp areas, which can be a problem in certain food processing facilities," she said. "If you have good sanitation, you can reduce the likelihood of listeria getting into the product after cooking."

The Franconia facility mainly takes raw, deboned turkeys and cooks them with marinades and spices before packaging and shipping to supermarkets and food distributors.

The company now plans to introduce pasteurization technology to the plant, Van Hoose said. That involves killing off bacteria by heating the poultry to about 165 degrees and then immediately cooling it.

"By (recalling poultry products) all the way back to May, what we did was an abundance of caution to protect the public," Van Hoose said. "The truth of it is, I would eat every pound that we're bringing back."

Citing "proprietary interests," Van Hoose denied reporters access to the inside of the plant Monday. Outside the building, groups of Spanish-speaking plant workers donned hairnets and rubber boots as they smoked cigarettes and rested near a sign that proclaimed, "The Finest Chicken and Turkey Products."

Listeria bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses can be found in uncooked meats and vegetables; processed foods that are contaminated after processing such as cold cuts and soft cheeses; and unpasteurized milk.

Pasteurization and cooking can kill the bacteria.

There are six bacterial species of listeria; one of them, listeria monocytogenes, causes human illnesses, said Neil Fishman, director of department of healthcare epidemiology and infection control at the University of Pennsylvania Health Center.

There are at least 13 different strains of listeria monocytogenes, said Fishman.

To decrease the risk of listeriosis, the CDC suggests: thoroughly cooking raw food from animal sources; washing raw vegetables; keeping uncooked meats away from vegetables, cooked foods or ready-to-eat foods; avoiding unpasteurized milk or foods made from it; and washing hands, knives, and cutting boards after handling raw foods.

Persons at high-risk are also encouraged to cook ready-to-eat foods or leftovers until they are steaming hot; reheat cold cuts; and avoid soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, Camembert, blue-veined and Mexican-style cheese.

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