Every week, I write about a recall. I get dozens of emails announcing them. I saw the one about carrots last week, but I didn’t think much about it.
As more was being written about the recall, I thought I’d look at a bag of carrots I’d had for a while. It turned out they were among the last carrots from my garden and they were in a bread bag for Happy Camper bread.
Then I thought I should look in my vegetable drawers. Sure enough, there was a bag of Cal-Organic carrots about three-quarters full. In the garbage it went. After I finish this article, I’ll wash the vegetable drawer.
I found the receipt from Trader Joe’s. I’ll see if I can get a refund.
Here’s the latest on the recall:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with state and local governments, are investigating illnesses in a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O121:H19 infections linked to organic whole and baby carrots from Grimmway Farms of Bakersfield, California.
State and local public health officials are interviewing people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick. Of the 27 people interviewed, 26, 96 percent, reported eating carrots.
The FDA’s traceback investigation identified Grimmway Farms as the common supplier of the carrots in the outbreak.
On Nov. 16, Grimmway Farms initiated a voluntary recall of many quantities and brands of bagged organic whole and baby carrots and contacted their distributing customers. The retail-packaged organic whole carrots were in stores for purchase from Aug. 14 through Oct. 23. The organic baby carrots have different best-if-used-by-dates ranging from Sept. 11 through Nov. 12. Click here for a list of the brand names included in the recall and the stores where they were sold.
Although the carrots are likely no longer on the market, they can last a long time when refrigerated or frozen. Consumers should check their refrigerators and freezers and discard the recalled carrots. Clean and sanitize surfaces the carrots touched. If you purchased organic whole or baby carrots and stored them without the original packaging and don’t know what brand they are, you shouldn’t eat them and should throw them away.
The FDA is working with the firm to determine the source of contamination and whether additional products are affected.
There have been 39 illnesses, 15 hospitalizations, and one death linked to the carrot recall.
The states with cases include Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
Washington, Minnesota, and New York have the most cases so far.
Contact your healthcare provider if you think you may have symptoms of an E. coli infection after eating organic carrots. Symptoms include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, nausea, and/or vomiting. Symptoms begin anywhere from a few days after consuming contaminated food or up to nine days later.
