Another day, another food warning. This time, a possible parasite contamination in chopped romaine lettuce has triggered a callback of prepared salads and wraps from stores including Trader Joe’s, Walgreens, Garden Food Service. and Kroger.
Caito Foods of Indianapolis heard from its lettuce supplier, Fresh Express, that the chopped romaine was being recalled for possible cyclospora contamination.The “sell by” or “best by” dates on the food range from July 18 to 23. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service notes the incubation period for cyclospora is up to two weeks, which will last until August 6.
Products affected by the health alert include certain varieties of:
- Garden Highway brand prepared salads
- Delish salads sold at Walgreens
- Boar’s Head salads and unbranded salads and wraps sold at Kroger
- Chicken salads and wraps from Trader Joe’s
You can see a full list of products here and images of the labels here. Consumers are encouraged to throw away the items or return them to the stores from which they were purchased. No illnesses have been reported from consumers, but cyclospora infections can take up to six weeks to present.
Cyclospora is a one-celled organism that can wreak havoc on the human body’s digestive system, causing explosive diarrhea, nausea and fatigue. The infection can be treated with antibiotics.
It’s been a rough summer for fresh food producers. More than 280 people have become sick from of a salad-based cyclospora contamination at McDonald’s this month. And more than 230 people have fallen ill from cyclospora ingested from Del Monte vegetable trays. A 2015 study found that food contamination costs $55.5 billion annually.
Correction, Aug. 3, 2018: An earlier version of this article misspelled “Garden Highway” as “Gordon Highway.” We regret the error.