The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising consumers that Dole Fresh Vegetables is voluntarily recalling certain varieties of its salad products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The voluntary recall includes all Dole-branded and private label packaged salads that were processed at its Ohio and California production facilities and contain iceberg lettuce.
Products subject to the voluntary recall are identified by a product lot code beginning with the letter W and a Best if Used By date between December 22, 2021 and January 9, 2022, OR products with a product lot code beginning with the letter B and a Best if Used By date between December 23, 2021 and January 8, 2022. The product lot codes are located in the upper-right-hand corner of the package.
A complete list of the recalled products is available on FDA's website.
Recalled items were distributed widely, including in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
Anyone who has purchased these products should not eat them. Consumers who still have any of these products in their refrigerators should throw them away.
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.