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If you’ve recently shopped at Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, Albertsons, or Safeway, you might want to check what’s in your fridge. A food manufacturer recalls nearly 223,000 pounds of one of its products that was sold in these large supermarkets because it may not be safe to eat, according to a recall announced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA ). Read on to find out if you have food at home and what the risk is, if so.
On Friday, September 24, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that Ready Pac Foods, Inc. recall of 222,915 pounds of ready-to-eat salad products because of the dressing. The targeted salads were sold under the manufacturer’s name, Ready Pac, but also under brand stores at major grocery chains, including Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, Albertsons and Safeway.
At Walmart, the recalled salad was sold as Ready Pac Bistro Chef Salad (which was excerpt from the site, too much). According to Walmart, it was sold in stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia.
Meanwhile, at Aldi, the salad in question is labeled as Little Salad Bar Chef Salad, and at Kroger, the the recall affects two salads, Kroger Brand Garden Salad with Chicken and Bacon, and Kroger Brand Chef Salad Kit for one. Finally, at Albertsons and Safeway, the ready-to-eat salad is called Signature Farms Café Bowl Chef Salad.
The producer of the dressing in salads, Litehouse Inc., has advised Ready Pac Foods that a shipment of ranch dressing was mislabelled and could in fact be a Caesar dressing, which contains anchovies that were not declared on the l ‘label. Because anchovies are an allergen that can put a consumer at risk, they must be mentioned on the label, hence the recall.
Fish is one of the “big 8” most common allergens in the United States, according to the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the others being milk, eggs, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, and wheat. The FDA’s Food Allergen Label and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) requires manufacturers to disclose presence or potential presence of any of these eight allergens in all of their packaged products, which Litehouse and therefore Real Pac Foods did not do due to the confusion.
Fortunately, there have been no confirmed reports of side effects associated with the recalled dressing in salads. But FSIS says, “Anyone concerned about injury or illness should contact a health care provider.”
RELATED: That Beloved Little Debbie Snack Was Just Recalled.
Stores with affected salad products (listed in full here with establishment numbers, lot codes and expiration dates) are now removing them from shelves since the recall was announced. Recalled salads may include one of the following establishment numbers, which must be printed on the package next to the expiration date: “M-18502B”, “P-18502B”, “M-32081″ or ” P-32081 “.
“FSIS is concerned that some products may be in consumers’ refrigerators. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be discarded or returned to the place of purchase,” warn officials. ‘USDA.
If you have any questions about the recall, you can contact Marie Toscano, Consumer Specialist at Ready Pac Foods, Inc. at 1-800-800-7822 or by email at mary.toscano@bonduelle.com. You can also contact the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or you can USDA live chat 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday. You can also email a question to MPHotline@usda.gov.
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In addition to the recall of ready-to-eat salads, most affected stores have had to put other products on shelves in the past two months. Most recently, Kroger announced on September 16 that he was voluntarily reminiscent of some of his branded bagged kale, due to possible Listeria.
Also on September 16, Aldi announced that it was voluntarily recalling certain lots of its Simply Nature Organic Poppy Seed Dressing “due to a processing issue that could allow microbial growth,” according to one. recall notice issued by the FDA. About a month earlier, on August 9, Aldi also voluntarily recalled certain packaging of two Kirkwood brand products: Kirkwood Raw Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu and Kirkwood Raw Stuffed Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese, due to potential contamination with Salmonella.
And in mid-August, a recall notice on FDA website announced that Jimmy’s Cookies Marketside Chocolate Candy Cookie Cake, sold in Walmart stores across the United States, is being withdrawn due to unreported peanuts.
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