Here in the United States salad making has become as easy as cutting open a few bags of pre-cut veggies and tossing them together in a nice large serving bowl. When you're on the run or pressed for time its hard to pass up the convenience of packaged, pre-processed veggies or fruits.
When you get home after a long day at work sometimes you may not be in the mood to wash and cut all those tasty salad ingredients.
Be careful. Even if that handy package of spinach or salad greens claims to be pre-washed and ready to eat, you might want to take the extra few minutes to thoroughly rinse your veggies.
In our little town some of the local food stores offer a few brands of these pre-washed salad fixings. I'm as guilty as the next person about skipping the rinse and just tossing those tasty greens in the bowl.
And then i stumbled upon the following government Food and Drug Administration warning:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- August 10, 2010 Salinas, California – Fresh Express is voluntarily recalling 2,825 cases of Veggie Lovers Salad with a Product Code of I208 and Use-by Date of August 10, 2010 out of an abundance of caution due to a possible health risk from Listeria monocytogenes. No other Fresh Express salads are included in the recall. No illnesses have been reported in association with the recall.
Only the Veggie Lovers salad products with a Product Code of I208 and a Use-by Date of August 10 are included in the recall. Retailers and Consumers who have any remaining product should not consume it, but rather discard it. Retailers and Consumers with questions may call the Fresh Express Consumer Response Center at (800) 242-5472, Monday – Friday, 5 a.m. – 8 p.m., Pacific Time. Consumers can find the Product Code and Use-by Date in the upper right-hand corner of the package.
This precautionary recall is being conducted to reach retailers as well as consumers. Consumers should check their refrigerators for Fresh Express Veggie Lovers salad with a Product Code of I208 and a Use-by Dates of August 10, 2010. If they have the product, they should immediately discard it. Retailers should check their inventories and store shelves to confirm that none of the product is mistakenly present or available for purchase by consumers or in warehouse inventories. Fresh Express customer service representatives are already contacting retailers and are in the process of confirming that the recalled product is not in the stream of commerce. Although limited in number, the cases were distributed by Fresh Express to 13 states with the potential for redistribution by customers to an additional 14 states (see listing).
| States Distributed | Possible Redistribution States |
|---|---|
| MO, MI, OH, IL, WI, IN, MD, MA, NY, KS, KY, PA, NJ | AR, TN, WV, IA, MN, DC, VA, VT, NH, NE, RI, PA, CT, MS |
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause foodborne illness in a person who eats a food item contaminated with it. Symptoms of infection may include fever, muscle aches, gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea. If it spreads to the nervous system symptoms may include headache, stiff neck or confusion. The illness primarily impacts pregnant women and adults with weakened immune systems. Most healthy adults and children rarely become seriously ill.
The precautionary recall notification is being issued due to an isolated instance in which one package of Fresh Express Veggie Lovers Salad yielded a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test collected and conducted by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
This is old news by now. Hopefully all those packages of salad mix mentioned in the above warning message are long gone.
Don't let this happen to you. Buy whole fresh vegetables whenever possible. And if you're like us and enjoy the time saving convenience of these packaged veggie mixes, Always take the extra minute or two to wash your veggies!
Keep eating healthy!
