Time to check your freezer, Aldi shoppers: The grocery chain is recalling frozen peas that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne bacteria that can survive freezing temperatures.
What to look for: The frozen sweet peas have one of Aldi’s store brand labels, Season’s Choice. Affected peas were distributed to Aldi stores in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. The bag weighs 16 ounces, and will have one of these packaging codes:
What to do: Aldi and the company that processed the vegetables, Lakeside Foods, instruct customers to bring the vegetables back to the store, or throw them out. If you have any questions, contact Lakeside Foods at 800-466-3834.
During a past mass recall of frozen vegetables, an expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speculated that there weren’t many reports of listeriosis illness linked to the vegetables in part because people cook frozen vegetables. They aren’t very appealing if you don’t. Steaming, microwaving, or cooking the vegetables in a soup or casserole brings them to the temperature needed to kill Listeria.
Listeria monocytogenes is a common foodborne pathogen, but one that can cause serious health complications in pregnant women, children, people with compromised immune systems, and elderly people.
Listeria is one of the sneakiest foodborne illnesses, since it can wait around in your body for as long as 70 days without making you sick. Do you remember what you ate 70 days ago?
For healthy adults, the infection may pass with no symptoms at all, or as only a brief gastrointestinal illness. It manifests as brief flu-like symptoms in pregnant women, but can cause serious complications for the fetus, which can lead to miscarriage, premature birth, or stillbirth.
Invasive Listeriosis can cause meningitis in other patients, and symptoms to watch for include fever, body aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist