Frozen strawberries sold in 32 states at big-box retailers — including Costco and Walmart — are being recalled due to fears over Hepatitis A contamination.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified the tainted berries as being sold under the Great Value and Rader Farms brands, which are distributed by Willamette Valley Fruit of Salem, Ore.
The brands sold at Costco, Walmart and Texas’ chain of HEB stores.
A statement from Willamette on the FDA’s site notified customers of the voluntarily recall, which affects packages of frozen sliced strawberries as well as frozen mixed-fruit medleys and chilled smoothie blends that contain strawberries.
FDA food safety public affairs specialist Janell Goodwin told The Post that the tainted strawberries were grown in Baja Calif. and Mexico, and “imported by a common supplier.”
The berries were distributed to Walmart stores in 32 states as early as January 2023.
Stores that received the recalled strawberries were located in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Customers were urged to check their freezer for recalled products — which include Walmart’s packs of Great Value Sliced Strawberries, Great Value Mixed Fruit and Great Value Antioxidant Fruit Blend — and either discard or return the frozen fruit.
Costco, meanwhile, received contaminated strawberries in its Rader Farms Fresh Start Smoothie Blend in Colorado, Texas, California and Arizona as early as October 2022.
In addition, all of HEB’s 325 Texas locations obtained the recalled fruit starting in July 2022.
Consumers were asked to throw away or return Rader Farms Organic Berry Trio purchased sometime within the last year.
Customers of the three retailers can cross-check their groceries’ product codes with the ones listed on the FDA’s website to see if they were affected by the recall.
Willamette said that “products that have different lot code or purchase dates are not subject to this recall over a Hepatitis A contamination.”
Hep A is “a contagious liver disease that results from exposure to the Hepatitis A virus, including from food,” Willamette’s statement said.
“It can range from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious illness lasting several months,” the notice said, adding that illness generally occurs between 15 and 50 days from exposure.
Symptoms of Hep A include “fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice, abnormal liver tests, dark urine and pale stool,” and can progress to liver failure if consumers have “pre-existing severe illness or are immune compromised.”
If a person believes they consumed a now-recalled strawberry, Willamette’s statement urges them to consult a healthcare professional to determine if they need a vaccine.
A representative for Willamette didn’t immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
In March, a social media video showing the red fruit teeming with microscopic critters creeped out viewers.
This came after a trend of related TikTok videos emerged during the pandemic, where app users submerged strawberries in salt water — and then expressed shock as tiny worms emerged from the fruit.
As it turns out, the strawberry colonizer is actually a spotted wing drosophila, a “very tiny” invasive fruit fly that likes to lay its eggs under the skin of strawberries and other berries.
These become larvae and crawl out of the skin.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
