Dole bagged salads recalled due to salmonella risk

Consumer Reports News: April 16, 2012 09:23 AM

Dole Fresh Vegetables is recalling a small lot of its Seven Lettuces bagged salad product, said the Food and Drug Administration yesterday. About 756 cases of the Dole bagged salad may be contaminated with salmonella.

The recall affects bags of the Dole Seven Lettuces salad with a use-by date of April 11, 2012 a UPC number of 7143001057 and a Product code of 0577N089112A or 0577N089112B. The bags were sold in fifteen states: Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

There have been no reported deaths or illnesses tied to the recalled Dole bagged salad products. However, salmonella can cause foodborne illness and may cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting or abdominal pain in consumers--especially among young children, elderly people and those with weakened immune systems.

As with last year's recalls of packaged salads contaminated with E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, Consumer Reports food safety experts offer these bagged salad tips:

Buy packages as far from their use-by date as you can find.
Even if the bag says "prewashed" or "triple-washed," wash the greens yourself. Rinsing won't remove all bacteria but may remove residual soil.
Prevent cross contamination by keeping greens away from raw meat.

For more information, see Bagged salad: How clean? and go to Consumer Union's website Not in My Food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that consumers with the recalled Dole Seven Lettuces product should not eat the possibly salmonella-tainted salads, but dispose of the bags.

For more information on this recall, consumers call the toll-free Dole Food Company Consumer Response Center at 800-356-3111.

Source:
Dole Fresh Vegetables Announces Precautionary Recall of Limited Number of Salads [FDA]

—Paul Eng