Washington-based CRF Frozen Foods has expanded its voluntary recall of frozen organic and traditional fruits and vegetables due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
The company stated that it is recalling the products in cooperation with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems.
Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, but Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
This expanded recall covers all of the frozen organic and traditional fruit and vegetable products manufactured or processed in CRF Frozen Foods' Pasco facility since 1 May 2014.
All the affected products carry the best by dates or sell by dates between 26 April this year and 26 April 2018.
These include around 358 consumer products sold under 42 separate brands.
Consumers have been urged not to eat these products and return them to the store where they were purchased for a refund, or simply discard them.
CRF had stopped operations at its Pasco facility on 25 April, following the initial voluntary recall in order to conduct a thorough review.
CRF Frozen Foods was informed by CDC that seven people from three states became ill and hospitalised due to Listeria and some of these illnesses have been linked to consuming CRF-manufactured or processed products.
Two of the seven individuals hospitalised later died though Listeria was not the cause of death in either person, the company stated.
The company also notified that these recalled products may have been purchased in all 50 US states, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in Canada.
