Attention vegetable-loving Trader Joe’s shoppers (isn’t that all of us?!?): some of the store’s packaged vegetables are being pulled off the shelves at the direction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to a possible lysteria risk.
The recall impacts some packages of butternut squash, cauliflower, zucchini, and vegetable bowls sold under the Trader Joe’s brand as well as Green Giant, and Signature Farms, according to CNN. (At Trader Joe’s, the brand’s butternut squash spirals and zucchini spirals are specifically at risk.) The at-risk veggies were voluntarily recalled from a variety of stores by their manufacturer Growers Express due to “possible contamination with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes” at a factory in Biddeford, Maine.
In a company statement posted by the FDA, Growers Express said, “Growers Express takes issues of food safety seriously and is issuing a voluntary recall of select fresh vegetable products in an abundance of caution and in the interest of protecting its customers and end consumers. The fresh vegetable products include packaged varieties of butternut squash, cauliflower, zucchini and a butternut squashed based veggie bowl.” Currently there are no reported illnesses, the statement notes.
The statement also includes a chart where you can see all the states affected by the distribution of possibly-contaminated products and the specific stores they were shipped to.
So what exactly is listeria? The FDA defines it as a “species of pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria that can be found in moist environments, soil, water, decaying vegetation and animals, and can survive and even grow under refrigeration and other food preservation measures” that can cause a disease called listeriosis. The severity of the illness can vary, with symptoms like a fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, developing within a few hours of ingesting the contaminated food or up to two to three days later. More serious symptoms include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions. “Listeria is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” according to the Grower’s Express statement.
“The safety of our consumers is our first priority,” Tom Byrne, President of Growers Express, said. “We self reported the need for this recall to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and stopped production immediately after being notified of a single positive sample by the Massachusetts Department of Health. We are deep sanitizing the entire facility and our line equipment, as well as conducting continued testing on top of our usual battery of sanitation and quality and safety tests before resuming production.”
If you believe you have purchased a contaminated product, you can visit the Grower’s Express website for more information.
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