Front Page  »  

Listeria found in Salinas lettuce

October 1, 2011

Romaine lettuce samples from a Salinas farm have been found to be contaminated with listeria and a recall has been initiated, according to government officials.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors notified True Leaf Farms that a random check of the vegetable had detected listeria, a dangerous bacterium which normally has a low incidence in humans.

But a recent outbreak of listeria caused by contaminated cantaloupe has been detected in 18 states and is being blamed for at least 16 deaths this month.

Listeria is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in the elderly, pregnant women, young children and others with weakened immune systems.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, this has been the deadliest food outbreak in more than a decade.

True Leaf Farms voluntarily recalled 90 cartons of packaged, chopped Romaine lettuce, most of which had been shipped to Oregon, Washington and Idaho, said officials. No illness related to lettuce has been reported, but officials identified the product as having a “use by” date of Sept. 29. The bag and box code is B256-46438-8.

Call Church Brothers, the sales agent for True Leaf Farms, at 1-800-799-9475, or go to www.churchbrothers.com, for information.


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


8 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Like Fish & game erred of the take limit on Carp, there should be a bounty on feral pigs. They are going viral across the country….STOP pause…I’m not implying that they caused this…Sorry for the stretch, but nonetheless, feral pigs, feral Carp, are depradating the habitats….STPOP PROTECTING THEM DFG…


0

Kudos to CCN for reporting the recall and identifying the specific packages being recalled so that consumers can take appropriate action.


The size of the recall has been expanded to 2,498 cartons with the same identification. (http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm274075.htm)


The CDC also has recommendations on food storage and preparation to reduce your risk to listeria. (http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/prevention.html)


0

Product Recall coverage, an endorsement offered on an “AG package” policy. We don’t know if this grower had that coverage. I would bet not. It’s expensive and most feel “it will never happen to me”…


0

Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a registry which listed the growers that carry the Product Recall Coverage?


Those carrying the coverage should get the benefit of having an easy place for consumers to find this information.


0

Geee, These poor Farmers. I know e-coli can be caused from a bird flying over and leaving a dropping or visiting a crop after walking through a cow pasture. I wonder what puts a crop at risk for this latest bacteria? I can’t imagine what a nightmare it must be to bring a product all the way to market and then have to recall it. I wonder if they have insurance that covers this type of loss?


0

We have a few farmers in our family. In the Guadalupe area they have a terrible problem with wild pigs. They used to have hunters go out a night and hunt for the pigs but now they’ve built homes near the area and the homeowners have complained so they can no longer do that. It’s a real problem. They should never allow homes to built close to large farms. When the homes come in then it’s harder to keep the wild as well as the domestic animals out.


0

Do you think other wild animals that raid the crops or traipse through them are depositing these bacteria from other sources? I guess if a pig raided a garbage pale they could easily come in contact with some of these bacteria. Then between foraging through a crop and then it could spread with watering and yeah sure, that would make sense.


I just can imagine how I would feel if something like this were to happen to me after I put in all that time, work and expense! I feel sorry for these farmers. I guess fencing may go a long way to curing a large part of the problem?


0

Worse than the pigs digging or walking on the crops as much as it is the pigs pooping. Poop=e coli.


I also have some sympathy for farmers, well I should say small farmers. Small farms are going away. When I say small, they can still making a mill$ here and there so they can do very well but am but I mean that they are being run out by big corp farms such Dole. When something like this happens to a small farmer it can do them in but a large corp farm can absorb the cost. Plus there is so many regulations on farmers, once again those regulations are easier for the big corp farms to handle than the small farms


0