An expanded recall of hard-boiled eggs now includes items sold at Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s and several other brands.
It covers all hard-boiled eggs manufactured at the Gainesville, Georgia, plant of Almark Foods, including all retail, pillow pack, pouch pack, frozen diced and protein kit products, which may be contaminated with listeria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week.
The bacteria can grow at refrigerator temperatures and cause a serious and sometimes fatal infection. Symptoms include high fever, headache, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Seven people in five states have been sickened in the listeria outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
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Four people had to be hospitalized and one person in Texas has died. A newborn was also infected while the mother was pregnant, but survived. A listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
“Evidence indicates that bulk hard-boiled eggs from Almark Foods are a likely source of this outbreak,” the CDC noted. The eggs were sold to companies nationwide.
Almark Foods, which calls itself “The Hard-Boiled Egg Specialists,” initially recalled the bulk hard-boiled and peeled eggs sold in white plastic pails.
Out of an abundance of caution, it has now voluntarily expanded the recall to include all products packaged for the retail market manufactured at the Gainesville, Georgia, plant with “best if used by” dates up through March 2, 2020. All production at the plant has been temporarily suspended.
Affected brands include Egglands Best, Kirkland Signature, Kroger, ShopRite and several others. The FDA has a full list of recalled products on its website. The recall affects both standard and organic hard-boiled eggs.
Consumers should look at the “best if used by” code on the package. If it starts with the prefix “G”, the product was manufactured at the Gainesville, Georgia facility and is part of this recall. Do not eat the eggs and throw them away, the FDA said.
Products with a “best if used by” code that starts with the prefix “N” or “Y” have not been recalled. For protein kit products, consumers should check the code on the actual egg package within the kit.
Meanwhile, Bakkavor Foods USA is voluntarily recalling 6-ounce packages of Trader Joe’s Egg Salad and 20-ounce packages of Trader Joe’s Old Fashioned Potato Salad with “use by” date codes up to and including 12/27/19 because these products were made with the potentially contaminated Almark Foods eggs.
The CDC is advising that people at higher risk for listeria infection, including those on dialysis, cancer patients, pregnant women, and adults over 65, throw away any store-bought hard-boiled eggs or products like egg salad regardless of where they were purchased or their use-by date.
This advice doesn’t cover eggs hard-boiled at home or homemade products made with those eggs.
