FL Listeria Recall: Eggs From Trader Joe’s, Walmart Now Included

A company has expanded its recall to include hard-boiled egg products sold at Walmart and Trader Joe’s. A FL case of listeria is confirmed.

FLORIDA — Products that contain hard-boiled eggs from a Georgia company that ended up on store shelves nationwide have been recalled because of a deadly outbreak of listeria. Now, the company, Almark Foods of Gainesville, has expanded the recall to include egg products sold at Walmart as well as Trader Joe’s.

If you’re at a high risk for listeria infection, don’t eat store-bought egg salad or anything else with egg in it. The recall does not affect eggs you bought at the store and then hard-boiled at home on your own but rather store-bought hard-boiled eggs and products that contain them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least seven people in five states have gotten sick, including one in Texas who died. Cases have been reported in Florida, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

The eggs from Almark Foods of Gainesville, Georgia, were sent to food service operators nationwide. The company has temporarily suspended all production at the plant.

One of the difficulties in identifying the bad product is that large retailers around the country have used the eggs in their own products, so identifying what to throw away or return is more difficult. Affected products have a “Best If Used By” date that starts with a G, meaning the product was made at the Gainesville facility.

Trader Joe’s used some of the recalled product in its own production of egg salad, which has also been recalled. The chain has recalled its brand name Egg Salad in 6-ounce cups and its brand name Old Fashioned Potato Salad in 20-ounce trays.

The egg products being recalled were sold under multiple brand names including 7 Select, Almark Foods, Best Choice, CMI, Dairy Fresh, Deb-El, Egglands Best, Everyday Essentials, Farmers Hen House, Food Club, Fresh Thyme, Giant Eagle, Great Day, Great Value, Inspired Organics, Kirkland Signature, Kroger, LIDL, Lucerne, Members Mark, Naturally Better, Nellie’s, O Organics, Peckish, Pete & Gerry’s, Rainbow Farms, Rembrandt Foods, ShopRite, Simple Truth Organics, Sunshine, Vital Farms, and Wild Harvest.

The CDC issued this alert:

• Until we learn more, CDC advises that people at higher risk for listeria infection throw away any store-bought hard-boiled eggs or products containing hard-boiled eggs, such as egg salad.
  • If you have these products at home, don’t eat them. Throw them away, regardless of where you bought them or the use-by date.
  • Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators and freezers where the products were stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator.
  • This advice does not include eggs hard-boiled at home or homemade products made with those eggs, such as egg salad or deviled eggs.
• If you buy products with hard-boiled eggs, or order or eat items with hard-boiled eggs at a restaurant:
  • Before you buy, order or eat, confirm with the store or restaurant that they do not use hard-boiled eggs produced by Almark Foods.
  • If they use hard-boiled eggs produced by Almark Foods, don’t buy or order the product.
  • If they don’t know where their hard-boiled eggs are from, don’t buy or order the product.
• People at higher risk for listeria infection are much more likely than the general public to get sick after eating a food contaminated with this bacteria.

Symptoms of listeria:

• Listeriosis can cause different symptoms, depending on the person and the part of the body affected.
  • Pregnant women typically experience only fever and other flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and muscle aches. However, infections during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn.
  • People other than pregnant women: Symptoms can include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions in addition to fever and muscle aches.
• People with invasive listeriosis usually report symptoms starting one to four weeks after eating food contaminated with listeria; some people have reported symptoms starting as late as 70 days after exposure or as early as the same day of exposure.
• Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics.

SOURCE: patch.com