- A frozen broccoli recall has hit Stop & Shop after a routine test of the grocery chain's frozen broccoli detected listeria.
- Stop & Shop announced it was voluntarily recalling its frozen broccoli on Wednesday.
- Listeria typically sickens roughly 1,600 people each year, and it is especially dangerous for older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women.
Stop & Shop is recalling its frozen broccoli.
On Wednesday, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection announced that the grocery chain was voluntarily recalling its store brand of frozen broccoli. The Department of Consumer Protection had detected Listeria monocytogenes during a test in a South Windsor, Connecticut store.
"We're incredibly proud that our staff was able to catch this during a routine sampling," Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull said in a statement. "We work hard every day across all of our divisions to ensure public health and safety both by conducting regular inspections, and by responding to complaints."
Stop & Shop is offering a full refund on all 160-ounce bags of its store-brand broccoli cuts. The universal product code, on the barcode of the impacted bags, is "068826700926."
Listeria infections are typically caused by eating contaminated food. Most healthy people under the age of 65 will have symptoms such as diarrhea and fever, though these infections are rarely diagnosed.
The infection is much more dangerous for older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women (as it can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, and newborn death).
Typically, roughly 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent major listeria outbreak in the US was in 2011, when seven people died after eating contaminated cantaloupe.
There have been several high-profile food-poisoning outbreaks recently. In April, the CDC cautioned people across the US to avoid eating romaine after an E. coli outbreak sickened people in 32 states. In May, Walmart, Food Lion, and other grocery chains recalled more than 206 million eggs after a salmonella outbreak.