Frozen food recall: Check your freezer now!

Listeria danger: Experts worry consumers aren't responding

DETROIT – It can be difficult for busy people to track ongoing food recalls and challenging to remember to check what's inside their freezer.

That's the fear safety experts are sharing after a massive frozen food recall involving millions of packages of fruits and vegetables. The concern in this case is Listeria contamination.

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The initial recall was released on April 22 involving just 11 frozen vegetable products. On May 2, CRF Frozen Foods in Pasco, Washington expanded the recall to include all its frozen fruits and vegetables processed at its Washington plant since May 1, 2014. That plant closed two weeks ago and investigators are still trying to track the cause of the contamination.

Response rates to recalls can be very low, and experts are sounding the alarm, hoping people will dig into their freezer and make sure they don't have any of the recalled products. They were sold in all 50 states at major retailers like Costco, Trader Joe's and Target.

Listeria danger

Matthew Wise is leading the outbreak response team at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He says it's critical to get any of those products out of your freezer, so you don't accidentally pull them out at a later date and put your family at risk.

"Listeriosis always makes us worry because it's such a serious infection," he said.

The CDC says listeria is most harmful to adults over 65 with weakened immune systems and pregnant women. So far, eight people have been sickened by listeria that's genetically similar to that found in CRF vegetables, and two have died, though listeria was not the primary cause of death. Listeria causes an estimated 1,600 cases of illness each year in the U.S., but just half are reported. About 18 percent of listeriosis patients die.

Find more information

If you stock up on frozen foods, it's critical that you check the online list of the products and make sure you don't have any in your freeze.

View: Recall information


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