The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising consumers that Fresh Express is recalling certain varieties of its salad products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The recall includes all use-by dates of fresh salad items with product codes Z324 through Z350. Product codes are located on the front of the packages below the use-by date. A complete list of recalled products is posted on the FDA's website. Recalled items were distributed through retailers in the Northeast (including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut) and Midwest and through distributors and retailers in Canada.
Anyone who has purchased these products should not eat them. Consumers should throw them away or return them to the place of purchase.
Anyone who eats food contaminated with L. monocytogenes can get listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns.
Symptoms of Listeriosis include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, convulsions, diarrhea, or other gastrointestinal symptoms. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections occur in older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. Anyone in the higher-risk categories who have flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the healthcare provider about eating the contaminated food.
Anyone who has eaten these recalled products and has symptoms of listeriosis should call their healthcare provider.