Major Strawberry Recall…Don’t Eat Those Strawberries Until You Read This
Seems like hardly a day goes by when another delicious food item is being recalled. What's going on? Are we still inspecting our food? Do other countries have this problem? The biggest question of all for me, why does this only happen with food items that are delicious. I mean you never hear about a food recall on radishes or beats.
The latest recall is very serious. The Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for strawberries. Over two dozen cases of hepatitis A have been linked to strawberries. According to the Centers For Disease Control, Heptatitis A is preventable, since the development of a vaccine in 1996. Since then cases have fallen dramatically.
Fortunately, people who get hepatitis A may feel sick for a few weeks to several months but usually recover completely and do not get liver damage. However, in rare cases, hepatitis A can cause liver failure and even death.
Now back to the recall, the strawberries affected by the recall have passed their expiration date, but the CDC says since many people buy fresh strawberries and then save them for later by freezing them, they could still make you sick. The strawberries were distributed between March 5th and April 25th.
According to the CDC news release, "The traceback investigations show that cases in California, Minnesota, and Canada report having purchased fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo or H-E-B prior to becoming ill,"
The infected batches were sold at popular grocery chains including Walmart and H-E-B. If you suspect you have the strawberries in your freezer, throw them out. You can always pick up fresh strawberries now at the Farmer's Market or at stores as they are currently in season. Hopefully, we can get through a whole week without a recall on anything. But if we have to get a recall maybe the next one will be on something no one really likes, like black licorice.