PDF: Romaine recall
Romaine lettuce marketed by Freshway Foods in 23 states, including Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, has been recalled because of a potentially deadly bacteria linked to an outbreak of illness.
Freshway Foods markets the lettuce in pre-made salads and salad bar packs to stores and delis, including Kroger and Ingles Markets.
Officials at Kroger and Ingles said the public should not be worried. The recall was quickly communicated to all of their stores, and the lettuce either has been removed from deli shelves or stores confirmed they never had the specific recalled products, officials said.
"We called all 202 of our stores and had them pull their salads out of the display case and destroy any of the other (recalled) lettuce that they had on the premises," said Ingles Market Chief Financial Officer Ron Freeman.
He said the recalled lettuce was used by Ingles only to prepare pre-made salads, and it was not used in the deli salad bars or sold on the produce shelves.
Ingles has stores in Ringgold, Trenton, Chatsworth, Summerville, Calhoun and Blue Ridge in Georgia, as well as in Jasper and Athens in Tennessee.
Nancy Gore-Scott, spokeswoman for Kroger, said the recall does not affect any Kroger stores in the Atlanta division, which includes all Kroger stores in Alabama, Georgia, and Knoxville, Tenn.
Recalled romaine products include* Freshway Grab and Go Chicken Caesar Salad/007 40004 74840/7 oz* Freshway Caesar Salad Kit/007 40004 74810/5.56 LB* Freshway Greek Salad Kit/007 40004 74806/6.125 LB* Freshway Grab and Go Apple/Walnut Salad/007 40004 74842/9.5 oz* Freshway Grab and Go Greek Salad/007 40004 74843/10.5 oz* Salad Bar Caesar Salad/Sold per pound* Salad Bar Greek Salad /Sold per poundSource: Freshway Foods, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Locally, Kroger has stores Dalton and Calhoun, Ga., as well as Decherd, Tenn. A Kroger spokesperson for the Decherd, Tenn., store's region -- the midsouth -- could not be reached for comment.
Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the lettuce may be the cause of an outbreak of illness linked to E. coli in Michigan, Ohio and New York.
Nearly 20 cases of the illness have been confirmed in those states, officials said. A dozen people have been hospitalized, three with the potentially life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.
In HUS, the body's blood-clotting mechanisms are altered, causing blocked circulation or bleeding in the brain or kidneys.
E. coli can cause abdominal cramps and diarrhea, which may be bloody. Though most healthy adults recover within a week, young children and the elderly are most at risk of developing HUS.
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