Golf balls and potatoes are both round, dimpled, and typically found on the ground. That’s about all they have in common, though, so the recall of hash browns produced by McCain Foods and sold under supermarkets’ private labels that may contain diced golf balls is still an interesting agricultural mystery. Now another retailer, northeastern chain Wegmans, has recalled its store brand hash browns.
Here’s what you should look for: 28-ounce bags of frozen O’Brien Hash Browns with the production code B161021 printed on the bag.
The affected products were distributed to the chain’s stores in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia sometime after they were manufactured in October 2016.
McCain, the manufacturer, has asked customers to either return the hash browns to a Wegmans store or throw them away.
If you have questions about the hash brown recall or whether the products in your house from Harris Teeter, Roundy’s, or Wegmans are part of it, contact McCain Foods at 630-857-4533 or 630-857-4423. If you find plastic and foam in other potato products, or anything else in your food that doesn’t belong there, contact the Food and Drug Administration and your local health department.
In addition to protecting the public from a mouthful of golf ball foam, recalls like this have the interesting side benefit of revealing which companies actually manufacture store-brand products. These frozen potatoes sold at three different grocery chains actually come from McCain, a major name brand in the frozen potato space.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist