Supermarket chain Trader Joe's is recalling nearly 5,000 pounds of its store-brand frozen Butter Chicken and Basmati Rice dinner due to possible contamination with listeria, reports The Los Angeles Times.
Canadian company Aliya's Foods Limited, the producer of the product, issued a voluntary recall of 4,865 pounds of the frozen food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Though 19 cartons of the 12.5-ounce boxes were placed on hold at the distribution center, 240 cartons were shipped from Canada to various Trader Joe's locations in the U.S., according to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
"All code dates of this product have been removed from sale and destroyed," Trader Joe's told customers on its website. "To date, we have received no reports of illness related to this product."
The affected meals were produced on Oct. 31 of this year. The date on the box reads "305 12" - a Julian calendar date coding, according to Trader Joe's.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is overseeing the recall in Canada. The Food Safety and Inspection Service will verify U.S. companies sent shipments of the recalled products have been notified and have removed them from sale.
The recall is for 12.5-ounce boxes of Trader Joe's Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice with product code 2012-10-31 and lot code 30512. Consumers with questions should contact Trader Joe's at 1-626-599-3817.
The recall involves over 100 Trader Joe's locations in: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Customers who have purchased the product should not eat it. Affected buyers should throw away the food, or return it to any Trader Joe's for a full refund.
The FDA said the list may not include all retail locations that have received the product, or may include ones that did not actually receive the product.
Signs of listeria were detected during routine testing, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Listeria is a bacteria that can cause fever, headaches, neck stiffness and muscle aches. It has also been known to lead to miscarriages, stillbirths and fatal infections, reports the Los Angeles Times.
U.S. government officials said they were concerned consumers might have received or purchased the product but have not yet been notified about the recall.
This is the second massive recall Trader Joe's has been forced into in 90 days. Earlier this fall, Trader Joe's had to recall 76 varieties of almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, tahini and roasted blanched peanut products because the foods were linked to salmonella.
Health officials worked to contain the effects of the salmonella contamination throughout the fall, which began at the Sunland, Inc. nut processing facility, according to The Christian Science Monitor. The company supplied nut butters and various nut based products to the major grocery chain nationwide.
"Authorities linked 42 illnesses in 20 states to the salmonella outbreak at Sunland. The Food and Drug Administration shut down the Sunland facility last week," noted The Monitor.
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