08/22/2023

Listeria Concerns in Freezer and Produce Aisles

Grocers removing recalled products that may cause food poisoning

Digital Editor

Real Kosher Ice Cream is recalling its Soft Serve On The Go ice cream and sorbet cups because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Several cases of Listeria monocytogenes are popping up in the perimeter and center store. This foodborne pathogen 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.

In the produce aisle, Vancouver, British Columbia-based David Oppenheimer and Co. I LLC is voluntarily recalling all 1-pound clamshells of organic green kiwifruit because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria.

The recalled organic green kiwifruit is grown in New Zealand, exported to North America and repacked locally for sale in 1-pound clear plastic clamshells bearing the Zespri brand and UPC code 8 18849 02009 3, with the GTIN barcode 9400 9552.

The organic green kiwifruit was shipped between June 14 and July 7 and sold in clamshells at retail locations in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The recall was the result of a routine sampling by the Kentucky Department for Public Health on July 7. Since being notified on Aug. 3, David Oppenheimer and Co. has worked with Zespri to trace the product through the supply chain to two grower lots, and immediately ceased the distribution of organic green kiwifruit from the related grower lots as it continues its investigation in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No illnesses have been reported to date.

Over in the freezer aisle, FDA is conducting an ongoing outbreak investigation of Listeria in ice cream. Two individuals in New York and Pennsylvania became ill and had to be hospitalized after eating Soft Serve On The Go vanilla chocolate ice cream from Real Kosher Ice Cream, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Real Kosher Ice Cream voluntarily recalled all flavors of its Soft Serve On The Go 8-ounce cups as a precaution. Flavors include Vanilla Chocolate, Razzle, Caramel, Parve Vanilla Chocolate, Sorbet Strawberry Mango and Lite Peanut Butter.

The UPC is the only identifiable code on the package, as it doesn’t have any lot number or best-by date. All items produced up to Aug. 4 are being recalled. The ice cream was sold at multiple retailers in 20 states.

This Listeria outbreak is still under investigation by FDA.

Meanwhile, Food Lion is dealing with its own Listeria concerns in the freezer aisle. The grocer is conducting a recall of Food Lion Mixed Vegetables and Food Lion Super Sweet Cut Corn.

Customers may have purchased the 16-ounce Food Lion Mixed Vegetables with UPC 0003582600509 between Jan. 19 and Aug. 19. The 16-ounce Food Lion Super Sweet Cut Corn with UPC 0003582607985 may have been purchased between Nov. 7, 2022, and Aug. 19, 2023.

Customers who purchased the affected product can return it to their local Food Lion store for a refund equal to double the purchase price, in accordance with Food Lion’s Double Your Money Back Guarantee.

Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion operates more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states with 82,000-plus associates. Its parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is No. 10 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century and among its 10 Most Sustainable Grocers.