You'll want to check that bag of salad in your fridge before preparing a romantic dinner for your Valentine, or else they could end up in the bathroom all night.
Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. is recalling a "limited number" of Dole-branded and private label salad kits due to potential cross contamination with cheese that's linked to a listeria outbreak that has infected 26 people in 11 states.
A recall notice posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the salad kits were processed on the same line as a cheese product from Rizo-Lopez Foods, which had previously been recalled for the "possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes."
The recall includes eight varieties of salad kits with "best if used by" dates ranging from 2/3/24 to 2/21/24:
• Dole Chopped Kit Avocado Ranch, lot code W019-W036, N019-N036
• Dole Chop Kit Avocado Ranch, lot code W022- W036
• Dole Premium Kit Southwest Salad, lot code W022- W036, N022- N036
• Dole Cajun Ranch Chopped Kit, lot code W029- W036, N022- N036
• Dole Premium Kit Endless Summer, lot code W022- W036, N023- N036
• Dole Supreme Kit Southwest Salad, lot code W020- W036
• President's Choice Southwest Salad Kit, lot code W034-W036, B018- B024
• Marketside Chopped Salad Kit Bacon Ranch Crunch, lot code B020- B036
The product lot codes are located in the upper-right-hand corner of the package.
The eight recalled salad kits were sold in 25 states: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. They were also sold in several areas in Canada, the FDA said.
No illnesses have been reported to date.
Consumers who still have any of these products in their refrigerators or freezers are urged not to consume the product and to discard it immediately.
Listeria is one of the causes of food poisoning. It is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.