BUFFALO, N.Y. — Consumers of Fresh Express products should check to make sure their salads did not come from the company's Streamwood, Illinois facility.
On Monday, the company announced that branded and private label salad products from the Illinois facility have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. That organism can cause serious infections in young children, frail or elderly people that are sometimes fatal. The infection can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths in women who are pregnant.
Symptoms of an infection caused by Listeria include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Recalled salad items were distributed across the Northeast and Midwest, including in New York.
The recall includes all Use-By Dates of fresh salad items with product codes Z324 through Z350. If people find they have purchased these products, they should be thrown out. No other Fresh Express products are subject to recall.
The recall was triggered by the Michigan Department of Agriculture detecting Listeria ina random sample test of a package of Fresh Express salad mix. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 10 illness associated with the strain of Listeria monocytogenes since 2016.
Production at the Streamwood facility has been stopped, and affected retailers have been instructed to remove recalled items.
Refunds or more information can be obtained by contacting the Fresh Express Consumer Response Center at (800) 242-5472 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Refunds are also available where the product was purchased.
Fresh Express products can be found at Aldi, Target, Tops and Walmart. For a full list of potentially affected products, visit the FDA's website.