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Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Yep, another recall.
A number of fresh vegetables sold by stores like Trader Joe’s and Food Lion have been recalled after state inspectors discovered Listeria monocytogenes in a sample. Growers Express LLC launched a recall of the products in question from various retailers in dozens of states.
What you need to know about the recall
According to Food Safety News:
Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still cause serious and sometimes life-threatening infections. Anyone who has eaten any of the recalled products and developed symptoms of Listeria infection should seek medical treatment and tell their doctors about the possible Listeria exposure.
Also, anyone who has eaten any of the recalled products should monitor themselves for symptoms during the coming weeks because it can take up to 70 days after exposure to Listeria for symptoms of listeriosis to develop. (source)
Here’s a list of products and retailers
The chart below has a list of products that have been recalled. If you have questions, you can contact the manufacturer at the toll-free number listed on each package.
Retailer | Label Description/ Brand |
Item Name | Pack Weight | Item SKU | UPC Number | Lot No. | States Affected | Best By |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Big Y Foods |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Sweet Potato Crumbles | 1 lb. | MXC 100101 |
60580 6000515 |
190612-403102 |
MA
|
6/28/2019 |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Crumbles “Fried Rice” Blend | 1 lb. | MXC 101101 |
60580 6000744 |
190612-403101 | 6/28/2019 | ||
Green Giant Fresh | Butternut Diced | 12 oz. | BNC 101101 |
60580 6138010 |
190614-403545 | 6/26/2019 | ||
Bozzutos |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Sweet Potato Crumbles | 1 lb. | MXC 100101 |
60580 6000515 |
190612-403102 |
CT |
6/28/2019 |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Crumbles “Fried Rice” Blend | 1 lb. | MXC 101101 |
60580 6000744 |
190612-403101 | 6/28/2019 | ||
C&S |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Crumbles “Fried Rice” Blend | 1 lb. | MXC 101101 |
60580 6000744 |
190612-403101 |
MA |
6/28/2019 |
Green Giant Fresh | Butternut Diced | 12 oz. | BNC 101101 |
60580 6138010 |
190614-403545 | 6/26/2019 | ||
Green Giant Fresh | Butternut Cubed | 2 lb. | BNC 102101 |
60580 6138218 |
190614-403576 | 6/26/2019 | ||
Food Lion |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Crumbles “Fried Rice” Blend | 1 lb. | MXC 101101 |
60580 6000744 |
190612-403101 |
SC, NC, PA, VA |
6/28/2019 |
Four Seasons |
Green Giant Fresh | Ramen Bowl | 7.4 oz. | MXC 183104 |
60580 6027864 |
190614-403534 |
PA |
6/28/2019 |
Native Maine |
Growers Express | Butternut Peeled | 10 lb. | BNC 103103 |
Foodservice | 190614-403578 |
PA |
Pack Date Only |
Procacci |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Sweet Potato Crumbles | 1 lb. | MXC 100101 |
60580 6000515 |
190612-403102 |
PA |
6/28/2019 |
Ruby Robinson (PFG) |
Growers Express | Butternut Peeled | 10 lb. | BNC 103102 |
Foodservice | 190614-403577 |
ME |
Pack Date Only |
Shaws |
Signature Farms | Cauliflower Crumbles | 1 lb. | CAC 101109 |
21130 98438 |
190612-403100 |
MA |
6/28/2019 |
Green Giant Fresh | Cauliflower Sweet Potato Crumbles | 1 lb. | MXC 100101 |
60580 6000515 |
190612-403102 | 6/28/2019 | ||
Green Giant Fresh | Ramen Bowl | 7.4 oz. | MXC 183104 |
60580 6027864 |
190614-403534 | 6/28/2019 | ||
Green Giant Fresh | Butternut Diced | 12 oz. | BNC 101101 |
60580 6138010 |
190614-403545 | 6/26/2019 | ||
Stop & Shop |
Green Giant Fresh | Zucchini Noodles | 10.5 oz. | MSC 104102 |
60580 6000881 |
190614-403567 |
NY, MD |
6/26/2019 |
Green Giant Fresh | 10.5 oz. | 190617-403954 | 6/29/2019 | |||||
Trader Joe’s |
Trader Joe’s | Butternut Squash Spirals | 10.5 oz. | BCN 105106 |
623391 | 190614-403565 |
AL, CT, D.C., DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, |
6/28/2019 |
Trader Joe’s | Zucchini Spirals | 10.5 oz. | MSC 104106 |
634908 | 190617-403814 |
AL, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NC, NE, OH, SC, TN |
6/ |
It’s interesting to note that these products were all handled at the processing plant and that the problem isn’t with the vegetables themselves, but with the plant. As Cat Ellis mentioned in her article, Here’s Why There Are So Many Food Recalls Lately. the more centralized our food system becomes, the more often we can expect these kinds of problems.
Microorganisms on contaminated food spread to food processing machinery, which then contaminates other food products sharing the same machinery.
Bottom line is, the more centralized our food is, the more industrialized our food is, the more monoculture and CAFO farms there are, the more our food supply is at risk. The Food Safety and Modernization Act has done nothing to prevent or mitigate these risks. It has only burdened small farmers. And food centralization itself has a long and horrible history.
The more produce is handled before it gets to you, the more risk it has of being contaminated. Your best bet is to grow your own gardens. The next best choice is to purchase vegetables from the farmer’s market. Finally, if you purchase them from the grocery store, avoid things that are peeled and cut up for you.
This sure is happening a lot.
This week, we’ve also discussed 16 different brands of dog foods linked to heart disease. Last week our concern was arsenic in bottled water, and the week before that it was E. coli in flour and hepatitis in frozen berries. It sure makes you wonder what food is next and whether you’re eating something from the next recall right now.
What are the symptoms to look for?
Here are the symptoms of a Listeria infection:
Symptoms of Listeria infection can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness. Specific laboratory tests are required to diagnose Listeria infections, which can mimic other illnesses.
Pregnant women, the elderly, young children, and people such as cancer patients who have weakened immune systems are particularly at risk of serious illnesses, life-threatening infections and other complications. Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, their infections can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. (source)
Do you have any of these products?
I feel like I’m asking this question at least once per week, but do you have any of the products in this most recent recall? Let me know in the comments below.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. She lives in the mountains of Virginia with her family. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Interesting This is only happening on the east side of country.
Actually, it was from a supplier in Colorado that fresh, whole Cantaloupes were carrying Listeria on the rind some years back. People that had purchased them were advised to wash them in Clorox before cutting them open, so as not to spread the organism from the rind onto the flesh. I tossed mine out at the time and stopped buying fresh ANYTHING from any grocery stores…
VEE3…Can we talk swine fur a momentos? Furgive me butt and de eastside or westside of R nation can be heads-or-tails. We know lotssa asses live on either. So let’s pretend it’s indistinguishable. Dis way we don’t lose track of calling them what they R.
Yes, and let’s also pretend that you’re literate.
Amen to that! Save the ebonics for the street!
I havent been serious about washing fresh fruit and veg. Just quickly rinsing under tap water. Now i’ve bought a fruit/veg wash from a souce i trust and i need to commit to using it. Its a pain because it calls for letting the fruit/veg soak in the wash for 10 or 15 minutes. But clearly its better than illness and a huge medical bill.
Same for me, Maggie – but it seems like we can’t trust much these days so we need to go the extra mile.
My understanding it is the immigrants using the bathroom in the fields. Someone said there is no bathrooms out there for the workers so they literally pee and crap out in the open when in the fields.
Hi Blather: I think that might be an urban myth going around about workers “going” in the fields. At at least for the Salinas Valley area, I can attest to the fact that the field workers have Porta potty‘s available. However, there is still a chance that someone goes rogue and uses the field, but even that would not account for the mass contamination of food products. I just hope we get control of these contamination issues. Maybe better maintenance,, protocols, testing and inspections.
Not in Mexico. A lot of produce come from there. Shipped to the same facilities where cross-contamination can occur.
Also, according to MS they use human waste as fertilizer.
It actually only requires that one field hand neglect washing his hands after defecation to spread germs on what he’s picked, and that contaminated produce enters the processing equipment chain. So yes, it very well could produce mass contamination. When you invite the population from third world country in, they bring with them a third world mindset, and third world conditions. Big AG makes the big bucks, and the rest of us shoulder the consequences.
This will cause one of two things to happen, Either people will go organic or they will avoid all fresh food.
It will probably be a combination of the two.
It’s tremendously difficult to ‘go organic’ when there’s a boat load of cheating with regards to what’s honest-to-goodness (play on words there, he he) organic.
ME: “How can I be sure that this is really organic, Sir?”
THEM: “Because I said so, that’s how.”
ME: “Oh. Well thanks for clearing that up, I’m always open to fresh, new perspectives. But then you KNEW that already, now didn’t you?”
Notice all this recalled food is highly processed, cut up, peeled , etc. Why are we so lazy? Solution to avoid this danger is simple enough. 1. Grow your own. 2. Buy locally, 3. Buy whole squash, cauliflower, etc. wash throughly and process yourself. 4. Buy organic, 5. Quit eating produce grown in Mexico.
It’s not always laziness that’s the dynamic here. In many instances, there’s the individual spending 1 hour (each way) on their daily commute in addition to their 8-10 hour work day. With 10-12 hours already exhausted, one can hardly consider them lazy in wanting to forgo the cleaning/sanitizing, the peeling and the chopping up of veggies. There’s also the considerable reduction in shelf life of organic veggies and goods, bereft of preservatives, as is claimed, and the increase in shopping/errand time that keeping a fresh stock on hand entails. Try suggesting to just such an individual that they should ‘grow their own’ and see how they respond to your sage advice (just don’t do it if they’re holding a blunt instrument of some sort at the time).
When I lived on base in Philippines & Hawaii in late 70’s, we were told to soak all fresh produce in bleach water. It didn’t matter if the fruits/veggies came from commissary, grocery store, farmers market or roadside stand…. It just got to be a habit. Think I will re-instate said habit!
They should ship all fruits and veggies unwashed. put the onus on the end consumer.