It seems not a day goes by that consumers aren’t being informed of a recall of something they’ve bought at a grocery store.
Just days after CRF Frozen foods said it would recall frozen fruits and vegetables, including many sold at Trader Joe’s, that retailer announced another recall, its second of the week.
Trader Joe’s said in a new statement that a different strain of the bacteria was detected in the prepared-foods area. This time, Listeria monocytogenes was found in 9.3-ounce packages of broccoli slaw & kale salad with white chicken meat, sunflowers, cranberries and sweet and spicy vinaigrette. Trader Joe’s is recalling 33,610 pounds of the product, which is made by Ghiringhelli Specialty Foods of Vallejo, California. It seems the sunflower seeds are responsible for the listeria. Ghiringhelli alerted Trader Joe’s after being contacted by the seeds’ supplier on Tuesday.
Only the items with use-by dates between May 2nd and May 7th in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah are affected.
CRF told consumers on Monday that it would vastly expand a voluntary recall of frozen fruits and vegetables, many of which were sold at top grocers like Costco Wholesale (COST), Trader Joe’s and Safeway (SWY) after seven people were stricken with Listeria infections. The recall now included 358 consumer products sold under 42 separate brands, up from an initial recall last month of 15 frozen vegetables. These recalls come at a time Chipotle Mexican Grill (COG) has been looking to recover from an E.Coli outbreak last year that made headlines for months.
Grocers are grappling with a hard problem to contain. As Fortune reported last year, each year, an estimated 48 million Americans are stricken ill as the result of one food-borne pathogen or another—listeria, E. coli, salmonella, and even a number of stowaway viruses are among the culprits. One study last year estimated that the annual cost of medical treatment, lost productivity, and illness-related mortality at $55.5 billion.
Listeria can cause sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with compromised immune systems. Listeria can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, according to the FDA.
