Another Day, Another Recall: Now It’s Salad
Packaged salads are the 2nd fastest selling item on grocery store shelves, trailing only bottled water.
However, depending on your salad preferences, you might just want to grab the bottles of water.
Why? Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning customers about a multi-state outbreak of E. coli infections linked to Fresh Express Sunflower Crisp chopped salad kits.
As of December 9th, eight people from three states were infected with the strain identified in the outbreak, the CDC said. Three were hospitalized, including one person who developed kidney failure. Luckily, no one has died thus far.
This outbreak is caused by a different strain of E. coli than the other current outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in the Salinas, California region, which has over 100 reported cases of infection, though the CDC is investigating a link.
Consumers, restaurants and retailers should not sell or consume any of the salad kits with a best-before date up to and including December 7, 2019, and with the identification code UPC 0 71279 30906 4, beginning with lot code Z, the CDC says.
You can find the code on the top right corner of the front of the bag.
If you do have the product, the CDC says to throw it away, even if some of the salad has already been eaten and nobody got sick. The health agency also recommends washing and sanitizing drawers or refrigerator shelves where the product was stored.
The CDC, along with the FDA and public health and regulatory officials in several states are investigating the outbreak, which also includes illnesses in Canada.
Officials are interviewing infected people about what they ate and were exposed to before their infection. Of those who have shared information, 100% reported eating a leafy green before the illness started, and six reported possibly eating a Fresh Express Sunflower Crisp chopped salad kit.