United States: An Arizona-based produce company has withdrawn whole cucumbers from 26 states in the US and Canada because they may be contaminated with salmonella.
More about the news
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration website reported that SunFed had sold the badly refining cucumbers between October 12 and November.
26, and some of those are being withdrawn from supermarkets’ shelves due to the suspected presence of the below types of bacteria.
About Salmonella infections
Infections by Salmonella are often lethal for young kids, elderly people, or other patients with an impaired immune response.
The recall affects all SunFed whole, fresh cucumbers regardless of size, says the department, CBS News reported.
The vegetables found their way prepacked in bulk cardboard over individual crates with a “SunFed” label on them, or they could have been placed in a nondescript white box or a black plastic shelf.
Such a container would have a sticker containing the grower’s name of the cucumbers, the company stated.
Affected states
The official reports suggest that the contaminated lot was shipped to market in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Some of the recalled cucumbers could have also reached the retail level in places other than those states.
The cucumbers were also found in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
Based on such a directive, consumers are encouraged to compare their own produce with pictures of the products likely to be contaminated and not to consume or share tainted cucumbers, CBS News reported.
Products recalled should be disposed of, said SunFed.
Earlier this year, at least 449 people in thirty-one states and the District of Columbia contracted salmonella food poisoning through cucumbers from two Florida growers.
Salmonella bacterium results in 1.3 million cases, over twenty-six thousand hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States annually, and food is known to be the cause of the majority of these cases, as estimated by the CDC.