What do you want for your last meal? You might not get a say in it. These outbreaks of foodborne illness slipped by all the safety checks, leading to illness, hospitalization, and even death. Here's what you need to know.
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00:00What do you want for your last meal?
00:02You might not get a say in it.
00:04These outbreaks of foodborne illness slipped by all the safety checks, leading to illness,
00:09hospitalization, and even death.
00:11Here's what you need to know.
00:13It turns out cheese can kill.
00:15In February 2024, Rizzo Lopez Foods recalled more than 50 dairy products, including cheeses,
00:22sour creams, and yogurts.
00:24After they were linked to an outbreak of listeria, Rizzo Lopez produces and supplies dairy products,
00:29under a variety of brand names, including Tio Francisco, Food City, and Whole Foods
00:35365 brand, among others.
00:38And major grocery stores, including Trader Joe's and Costco, had to recall pre-made meal
00:43kits and a salad dressing that used the cheeses named in the recall.
00:47In total, there were 26 reported cases linked to the tainted products, including 23 hospitalizations
00:54and two deaths, spanning 11 states.
00:57It was serious enough that in October, a California court banned Rizzo Lopez from operating
01:03until they cleaned up their act, complying with the FDA regulations they'd been skirting.
01:08First cheese, and now chocolate, too?
01:11In May, Klassen Quality Chocolate recalled 10 of its chocolate products, many of which
01:16were sold in bulk, over the possibility they were contaminated with salmonella.
01:20The recall spanned nine states, but was never publicly linked to any active salmonella infections.
01:26The FDA categorized this one as a Class II recall on a scale of three, so this one posed
01:32less of a threat to public health than some of the more dangerous salmonella scares.
01:37Nevertheless, according to a figure published by the Food Industry Council, Klassen recalled
01:41over 4.3 million pounds of chocolate, which is a glorious image, if you ignore the fact
01:47that all the deliciousness could give you the serious ick.
01:51This one's alarming in a number of ways.
01:54On May 3, 2024, Denisco USA recalled a wide range of food products over the possibility
02:00of salmonella contamination.
02:02You've probably never heard of Denisco, but it's one of the world's biggest ingredient
02:06suppliers, and it's just a small part of a truly massive corporation called International
02:12Flavors and Fragrances Incorporated.
02:14Once again, this recall was about that repeat offender, dairy.
02:18It included 36 different products, including whipped cream, coffee creamer, and yogurt,
02:24across 24 states.
02:25A representative for International Flavors told Consumer Affairs that Denisco wasn't
02:30necessarily at fault, since it was one of its suppliers down the line that reported
02:35the possibility of salmonella contamination.
02:38An in-house test at Denisco USA was negative for salmonella, but the company issued the
02:42recall all the same.
02:44The FDA categorized this as a Class 1 recall, and no salmonella cases were ever linked to
02:50Denisco USA products.
02:52Salmonella, listeria, and E. coli are some of the most common culprits behind foodborne
02:58illness, but there's one we haven't yet mentioned.
03:01It's a lot more rare and a lot more deadly.
03:03It happened in June and triggered one of the biggest food recalls of 2024, and this time,
03:08it affected that busy person's lifeblood, coffee.
03:12Specifically, a company called SnapChill recalled just under 300 canned coffee products made
03:18for over 100 coffee brands, including names like Cape Cod Coffee, after determining that
03:24they could harbor Clostridium botulinum bacteria, better known as botulism.
03:29This one's complicated.
03:31SnapChill doesn't actually produce coffee, it cans it.
03:34It's the technology that turns hot-brewed coffee into canned, cold coffee, while retaining
03:39that hot coffee flavor.
03:41No botulism cases resulted from any of the recalled products, and the company never actually
03:45found the deadly bacteria at its production facility.
03:49It was actually a notice from the FDA that SnapChill hadn't filed its paperwork with
03:53them that triggered the recall.
03:55But since botulism can kill, and not even a good cup of coffee is worth dying for, decisive
04:00action was warranted.
04:02Cheese, chocolate, coffee, and now ice cream?
04:06What fresh hell is this, 2024?
04:09In June, ice cream manufacturer Totally Cool instituted a gargantuan recall, 64.4 million
04:16pounds of ice cream products it produced, for a range of nationally well-known brands
04:21due to a risk of listeria.
04:23This one is a stab to the ice cream lover's heart.
04:26Among more than 60 products Totally Cool recalled were Chip Witch ice cream sandwiches, a Friendly's
04:32ice cream cake, Hershey's Cookies & Cream ice cream cones, and Ginny's ice cream sandwiches.
04:38No salmonella infections linked to the recalled ice cream ever surfaced.
04:42So in that sense, Totally Cool's decisive action paid off.
04:46However, just about two months later, Totally Cool filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a
04:51direct result of the recall.
04:54It was probably the most notorious food recall of 2024.
04:58Millions of pounds of Boar's Head deli meats were linked to a deadly listeria outbreak
05:02in July.
05:03In fact, this was one of the biggest meat recalls in U.S. history.
05:07It started on July 26th with a recall of more than 207,000 pounds of deli meat.
05:13But just four days later, after a Boar's Head liverwurst product pinged positive for a strain
05:18of listeria connected to an active outbreak, the company expanded the recall to 7.2 million
05:24pounds.
05:25This included every last slice of deli meat produced at the plant behind the infected
05:30liverwurst.
05:31This one was deadly serious.
05:33By the time the CDC declared the outbreak over, which wasn't until late November, there
05:38had been 60 hospitalizations and 10 deaths in 19 states, all due to Boar's Head-linked
05:44listeria infections.
05:46It's earned a spot among some of the deadliest cases of foodborne illness in U.S. history.
05:51And although the recall is over, there are still active USDA investigations into both
05:56the way the company handled things and general manufacturing conditions.
06:00Plus, there are multiple lawsuits in the works.
06:03So if you want to skip the Boar's Head liverwurst, at least temporarily, no one would blame you.
06:10In September, the FDA tested eggs from a company called Milo's Poultry Farms and found them
06:15positive for salmonella.
06:17For science nerds, there was already an active salmonella outbreak, and the agency linked
06:22Milo's eggs to the cause by using DNA technology.
06:26At first, the recall included eggs sold under the Milo's Poultry Farms and Tony's Fresh
06:32Market labels in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan.
06:35That first round consisted of 108,000 egg cartons, but soon it was nearly doubled to
06:41over 345,000 cartons, including duck eggs under the Happy Quackers Farm label and free-range
06:49M&E Family Farms chicken eggs.
06:51The salmonella outbreak linked to Milo's Poultry Farms was confirmed to have affected 93 people
06:57in 12 states, 34 of whom were hospitalized, mostly in the farm's home state of Wisconsin.
07:03Cheese, chocolate, coffee, ice cream, and now McDonald's?
07:082024 was a terrible year for comfort food.
07:11In October 2024, some McDonald's customers contracted E. coli from quarter pounders.
07:17By the following month, the outbreak ballooned to 104 cases across 14 states, including 34
07:24hospitalizations and one death.
07:26Unsurprisingly, the outbreak affected McDonald's business, as nobody wants a side of food poisoning
07:31with their sandwich.
07:32That said, McDonald's never actually recalled its quarter pounders.
07:36They simply removed them from the menu for a time, before bringing them back without
07:40onions.
07:41That's right, it was onions supplied to McDonald's by Taylor Farms that carried the bacteria,
07:47and for what it's worth, it wasn't just McDonald's, but chains like Taco Bell, Burger King, and
07:52KFC that were forced to remove onions from their menu.
07:55However, when the CDC interviewed everyone who got sick, they all talked about eating
07:59a McDonald's quarter pounder beforehand.
08:01No illnesses were linked to Taylor Farms' onions at any other fast food chain.
08:06October 2024 was a busy month for food recalls.
08:10The second of three to make it on this list involved pre-cooked chicken and turkey products
08:15provided to retailers by a company called Bruce Pack.
08:19It all started with a routine USDA inspection of the pre-made chicken that found Listeria.
08:24Now, Bruce Pack is one of those mega food companies that supplies poultry to a bunch
08:29of popular grocery stores nationwide, and well over 200 schools as well.
08:34Stores required to recall products included all your favorites, Sprouts, Costco, Aldi,
08:40Target, Walmart, Trader Joe's, and Kroger, among others.
08:44Unimpacted items weren't just packaged under store-named brands, but included third-party
08:49products found in grocery stores at every level, including Dole, Taylor Farms again,
08:54Red's, and many others.
08:56Luckily, there were no reported illnesses from any of the recalled products.
09:00That said, the company recall added up to more than 11 million pounds, which, if you
09:05let yourself think about it, is a lot of spoiled poultry.
09:09We suggest not thinking about it.
09:12Moving on, but still crushing comfort food dreams, this time, it's a blow to carb fanatics.
09:18In October, Treehouse Foods recalled a huge number of waffle products after routine testing
09:23determined that they might carry Listeria.
09:26Treehouse Foods' waffles are packaged and sold under a pretty wide variety of labels,
09:31and the initial recall included more than 600 products from brands like Best Choice,
09:36Clover Valley, Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Great Value, Kodiak Cakes, Publix, and more.
09:42So many waffles.
09:43And less than a week later, the company expanded the recall to include everything produced
09:47in the facility that made the waffles from that first positive test, and they added pancakes.
09:54To give you a sense of the size and scope of the food manufacturing business, recalled
09:58items were distributed nationwide and in parts of Canada.
10:02Hundreds upon hundreds of prepackaged waffles, but they seem to have been recalled in time
10:07because no illnesses were ever traced back to bacteria from Treehouse Foods' facility.
10:13In November 2024, people got sick after contracting E. coli bacteria traced back to organic carrots
10:20from a business called Grimway Farms.
10:22Et tu, organics?
10:24As is often the case in vegetable recalls, Grimway didn't package carrots under its own
10:29label but supplied plenty of popular brands throughout the United States, Puerto Rico,
10:34and Canada.
10:35Recalled products included both Whole and Baby Carrots sold under brand names like Whole
10:39Foods 365 Organic, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, and lots of others.
10:44Both Whole Foods and falafel brand, Fabolish, Inc., instituted separate recalls of products
10:50that used Grimway Farms' organic carrots, and the initial recall expanded days later.
10:56Unlike some of the other recalls on this list, the recall was too late for some.
11:00In total, 39 illnesses in 18 states were traced back to Grimway Farms' carrots, including
11:0615 hospitalizations and one death.
11:09This November, E. coli outbreak was limited to one meatpacking company in Minnesota, but
11:15it made 19 people sick, sending four to the hospital and leaving two with serious health
11:20complications.
11:21After identifying 15 E. coli patients who got sick in Minnesota between November 2 and
11:26November 10, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service figured out that ground beef processed
11:32through Detroit's Wolverine Packing Co. was responsible.
11:36Wolverine Packing Co. ships meat across the United States and ultimately recalled 167,000
11:42pounds of various ground beef products.
11:45Fortunately, no illnesses outside of Minnesota ever materialized, at least publicly, suggesting
11:50that the recall was successful.