Some Hy-Vee Bagged Salads Recalled for Possible Health Risk

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- River Ranch Fresh Foods, LLC of Salinas, CA, which produces bagged salads for Hy-Vee and other supermarket chains, has issued a voluntary recall of 2,154 cases of various bagged salads due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.

Routine random tests conducted by the Ohio Department of Agriculture indicated the presence of the listeria organism in a bagged salad product produced by River Ranch for the Giant Eagle chain, based in Pittsburgh, PA. As a result, River Ranch has issued the recall for Giant Eagle's Farmers Market brand salads and the Hy-Vee salads produced at its facility on September 27, 2011. These products carry a "Best By" date of October 14, 2011.

To date, there have been no reported cases of customer illness due to consumption of these items.

Four varieties of Hy-Vee bagged salads, each carrying a "Best By" date of 14OCT2011, are covered by the recall. All potentially affected products have been removed from Hy-Vee stores, and a register sale block has been implemented to ensure none of this product is inadvertently sold to consumers. Customers are encouraged to check their refrigerators for the following Hy-Vee bagged salad products and return any unused product to the store for a refund:

No other products or code dates are affected by the recall.

The Listeria monocytogenes organism can cause listeriosis, a condition characterized by high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. These symptoms generally are mild and of short duration in healthy individuals, but the organism can produce serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and other adults with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Consumers who are concerned about illness as a result of consuming this product should contact a health care provider.  

Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 234 retail stores in eight Midwestern states. For 2011 the company will record total sales of $7.3 billion, ranking it among the top 25 supermarket chains and the top 50 private companies in the United States. Visit the company's website at www.hy-vee.com

SOURCE Hy-Vee, Inc.