Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. has announced that they are voluntarily recalling all Dole-branded and private label packaged salads processed at its Bessemer City, NC and its Yuma, AZ production facilities from the market due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious, and sometimes fatal, infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, but Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, Dole is also temporarily suspending operations at both facilities to conduct their extensive cleaning and sanitation protocol.
Products subject to the voluntary recall can be identified by a product lot code beginning with the either the letter “N” or “Y” in the upper right-hand corner of the package and will have a “Best if Used By” date between November 30, 2021, and January 8, 2022.
The recalled products come from the following brands: Ahold, Dole, Kroger, Lidl, Little Salad Bar, Marketside, Naturally Better, Natures Promise, and Simply Nature.
Recalled items from the Bessemer City facility were distributed in the states of AL, CT, FL, GA, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MS, NC, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, and VA.
Recalled items from the Yuma facility were distributed in the states of AL, AZ, CT, FL, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MS, NC, ND, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WI.
You can find the full list of products and their respective UPC numbers here.
Consumers who still have any of these products in their refrigerators are urged not to consume the product and dispose of it immediately.
This suspension of operations and recall are being performed voluntarily by Dole out of an abundance of caution, in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The decision to suspend operations and recall all products from those facilities was made after finding, and analyzing, the strain of Listeria monocytogenes that was isolated in a single package of Dole-branded Garden Salad produced in the Bessemer City facility and a single package of shredded iceberg lettuce produced in the Yuma, AZ facility.
Both items were randomly sampled by the state of Georgia and the state of Michigan and were found to be a genetic match with a strain of Listeria monocytogenes which FDA and CDC believe is responsible for at least sixteen illnesses since 2014.
Retailers that would usually sell these products have been advised to check their store shelves and warehouse inventories to confirm that no recalled product is available for purchase.
No products produced from Dole facilities in Springfield, OH (production/lot codes beginning with “W”) or Soledad, CA (production/lot codes beginning with “B”) are included in these voluntary recalls.
Other Dole products, including “ready-to-eat” salad products, fresh fruit, and field-packed fresh vegetables, are not part of these voluntary recalls, and have been considered safe to consume.
Any questions about the recalls can be directed to the Dole Consumer Response Center at 800-356-3111 from Monday—Friday at 8:00am to 3:00pm Pacific Time.
