Carrot E. coli outbreak brings new concerns for shoppers in Colorado
Word of yet another E. coli outbreak has shaken shoppers 10 days ahead of Thanksgiving. More than a dozen brands of organic carrots are now recalled with warnings to consumers not to eat them. One person is known to have become ill in Colorado, but the recalled products were all produced by Grimmway Farms and sold under a variety of brand names.
They were shipped directly to retail distribution centers nationwide in the United States. There are 39 known cases total across the country in 18 states with one death.
"I mean it's part of a larger problem, right? When you de-regulate industries, when you make food safety not a priority," said one shopper Monday night in Denver.
Illness typically starts three to four days after ingesting the bacteria, but it can take up to 10 days to feel ill. The symptoms of E.coli poisoning include stomach cramps, diarrhea, excessive vomiting and a fever over 102 degrees. The carrots might be linked to an outbreak of E. coli O121:H19, which is a different strain from the one recently linked to onions in McDonald's products that made 104 people sick, killing one who lived in western Colorado.
"E. coli only comes from one place, and that's understandably human and animal feces. And so where is that found? It's found on the ground. It's found in the fields where these vegetables are grown," said Ron Simon an attorney who specializes in food safety.
Simon represents 61 people in the outbreak linked to McDonald's.
"What should have happened was both the onions and the carrots in this case should have been put through a sanitation procedure where they wash the vegetables, and they put them in a chlorine bath, and sometimes they irradiate them in order to kill all the bad bacteria and then, once that's done, they're supposed to test to see if those procedures got all the bacteria."
It stops nearly all cases from getting through to consumers, but if there are gaps or failures, contamination can end up on products in stores.
A CBS News analysis found foodborne illnesses have risen 42% since 2013 in regions monitored by the CDC.
"They're happening more frequently as the food supply chain becomes more and more consolidated. Where we have fewer and fewer growers or processors," said Abigail Horn, a professor who studies data on food systems for safety and health applications at the University of Southern California.
"I mean this is the sort of thing that's just going to continue to get worse," worried the shopper in Denver.
From the CDC:
Whole Organic Carrots
• Were available for purchase in stores approximately from 8/14/2024 through 10/23/2024
• No best-if-used-by-dates are on the bags of organic whole carrots.
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Marketside, Nature's Promise, O-Organic, President's Choice, Simple Truth, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Wholesome Pantry
Baby Organic Carrots
• Best-if-used-by dates ranging from 9/11/2024 to 11/12/2024
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Grimmway Farms, Marketside, Nature's Promise, O-Organic, President's Choice, Raley's, Simple Truth, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Wholesome Pantry