From time to time, retailers issue recall notices alerting consumers to return purchases to a store for a refund due to a safety issue. Some of these warnings relate to manufactured products, yet recently quite a number have pertained to food items. Food subjected to unsanitary conditions or transported outside of recommended temperature ranges provide a fertile substrate for the growth of harmful bacteria, such as E coli. Unwary consumers who eat these products may develop food poisoning symptoms.
If you learn about a food recall notice impacting your household, you should immediately take steps to check your pantry. Never eat food subject to a recall notice, or food that has remained in storage past the expiration date marked on the package!
A series of recent food recalls have related to frozen peas and vegetables. Shoppers visiting the frozen food departments in many grocery stores around the United States may have unknowingly purchased frozen veggies falling within the recall. a food product recall occurred due to concerns about the possibility that Listeria contaminated frozen vegetables.
Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria, can produce food-borne illnesses. This bacteria easily contaminates vegetables and dairy products. Fortunately, the food poisoning symptoms caused by the bacteria usually occur in a mild form and resolve over time. Only an estimated 1 in every 150,000 cases of people sustaining infection with the Listeria bacteria result in hospitalizations in the United States, for instance. Yet when people do sustain Listeria food poisoning, the results can prove very damaging in some patients. Fetuses and newborn babies in particular often suffer harmful impacts from this type of bacterial contamination. Patients with weakened immune systems also may have poor resistance to the pathogen.
Testing devised by the National Food Corporation led to the discovery of the possible recent Listeria hazard. Frozen veggies and peas impacted by the recall notice issued in late June (as reported in a video appearing on YouTube) include certain products packaged between the eight month period between September 2nd and June 2nd. Retailers distributed the food items under these labels: Bountiful Harvest, Great Value, First Street, Market Pantry, Live Smart and Sprout.
In light of the recall, the firm Green Cuisine also chose to issue a recall of one of its products, a pesto salad. The company reportedly harbored concern that some of the ingredients used in the salad might possibly have fallen within the scope of the new recall. Other food manufacturers may follow this example as awareness about the potential vegetable contamination issue spreads more widely.