Earlier this week, Willamette Valley Fruit Co. issued a voluntary recall of several frozen fruit products, all of which contain strawberries that may have been exposed to hepatitis A.
As Food & Wine reports, the recalled items are specific to three retailers: Walmart, Costco, and HEB. If you find any of them in your freezer, the Food and Drug Administration advises you to toss them out or take them back to the store for a refund. Here’s a list of the affected items:
So far, no hepatitis A illnesses have been linked to the aforementioned packages in particular. But the strawberries used in all of them were sourced from Baja California, Mexico—and other strawberries from there have been linked to nine illnesses to date. The CDC and the FDA have been tracking the outbreak for months, and a number of other retailers—including Trader Joe’s and Aldi—have recalled certain frozen strawberry products during that time. You can see a comprehensive guide to all the recalls here, and learn more about the CDC’s investigation here.
The illnesses occurred between November 2022 and April 2023, and some of the recalled fruit hit shelves as early as spring 2022. So it’s worth digging through the back of your freezer to see if any of last summer’s forgotten smoothie ingredients should be trashed.
Hepatitis A is a contagious liver infection whose symptoms can include yellow skin or eyes, lack of appetite, stomach pain, vomiting, or fever, among other things. Symptoms typically show up somewhere between two to seven weeks after you’ve been exposed to the virus. If you’re exhibiting symptoms and/or have eaten contaminated strawberries recently, contact your health care provider.
This article was originally published on www.mentalfloss.com as Costco and Walmart Frozen Strawberries Are Subject to Recall—Here’s How to Check If Yours Are Affected.
