Popular Packaged Veggies From Green Giant and Trader Joe’s Are Being Recalled Over Listeria Concerns

If you were looking for an excuse to forgo a healthy dinner tonight and just order a pizza, you can thank Growers Express: The manufacturer has issued a voluntary recall of several popular packaged vegetables due to possible contamination with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, CNN reports.

According to a notice released on Monday by the Food and Drug Administration, the affected vegetables include butternut squash, cauliflower, zucchini, and some vegetable bowls sold by the brands Green Giant, Trader Joe’s, and Signature Farms.

The vegetables in question came from a factory in Biddeford, Maine, and they were mostly shipped to retailers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maine. But even if you don't live in those states, check the FDA’s full chart of states and stores to see if yours is on the list, too. Be extra wary of products with “Best if Used By” dates from June 26 to June 29, 2019, which are at the highest risk for contamination.

The good news is that only the specific packaged vegetables on the list are recalled—no need to toss your frozen or canned vegetables.

Symptoms of Listeria infection include high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Young children, frail or elderly people, and people with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible to contracting an infection from the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, and it can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you should seek medical care if you feel any symptoms within two months of eating possibly contaminated food, and you’ll likely be prescribed antibiotics.

Luckily, no cases of illness have been reported yet. Growers Express voluntarily decided to recall the vegetables after the Massachusetts Department of Health notified the company of one positive sample in its factory.

"We are deep sanitizing the entire facility and our line equipment, as well as conducting continued testing on top of our usual battery of sanitation and quality and safety tests before resuming production," Growers Express president Tom Byrne said in a press release.