Carrots Recalled Amid E. coli Investigation

Dozens of brands of organic carrots and organic baby carrots sold in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada have been recalled amid a fatal nationwide E. coli outbreak. Grimmway Farms issued the recall Saturday after the products were linked to an outbreak that has left at least one person dead and 15 others hospitalized.

The recall impacts 35 brands and several weight sizes of organic carrots and baby carrots that were shipped directly to retail distribution centers nationwide in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, per a notice shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The products were sold at stores including Walmart, Kroger, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Albertsons, Publix, and Food Lion, among numerous others, under brand names including 365, Bunny Luv, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Grimmway Farms, Marketside, Nature’s Promise, and more. The recalled organic baby carrots have best-if-used-by-dates ranging from Sept. 11 through Nov. 12. Impacted organic whole carrots do not have a best-if-used-by date printed on the bag, but were available for purchase from Aug. 14 through Oct. 23. The full list of recalled carrots can be found here.

The recall was initiated after “interviews with sick people and traceback findings” determined that Grimmway Farms was the common supplier of organic carrots linked to a nationwide E. coli outbreak that has sicked at least 39 people and resulted in one death and 15 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC said E. coli illnesses emerged between Sept. 6 and Oct. 28 and affected people across 18 states. Washington, Minnesota, and New York reported the highest number of cases, with illnesses also reported in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming.

“State and local public health officials are interviewing people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick,” the FDA said. “Of the 27 people interviewed, 26 reported eating carrots. The FDA’s traceback investigation identified Grimmway Farms as the common supplier of organic whole and baby carrots in this outbreak.”

The Saturday recall notice noted that while the impacted carrots are no longer on store shelves, they may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers. Consumers who purchased the recalled carrots have been encouraged to not to consume them and instead “throw them away, and clean and sanitize surfaces they touched.” The FDA said Grimmway Farms “has also notified its customers who received the recalled product directly from Grimmway Farms and requested that those customers notify distributors of the recall products.”