8mo ago

One person dies, dozens sickened after eating carrots contaminated with E. coli

www.pbs.org

Summary

An E. coli outbreak linked to bagged organic carrots from Grimmway Farms has infected 39 people across 18 states, with 15 hospitalized and one death reported.

The recalled carrots, sold under brands like Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, and 365, are no longer in stores, but the CDC urges consumers to check for and discard any remaining stock.

E. coli infections, which cause severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting, can be life-threatening for vulnerable groups.

Recent outbreaks have also been tied to onions, lettuce, and walnuts.

65 comments

This type of stuff is only going to get worse in the next four years.
- Absolutely. These companies need oversight.
  
  States could create their own FDA when the federal government stop doing their job.
- Oh boy. I'm already a paranoid about food. There was a major quantity of outbreaks during 2010-2020.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foodborne_illness_outbreaks_in_the_United_States
- Good. The American people wanted this. Unregulated and unceasing capitalism will surely not kill thousands.
  
  A thin majority of the Americans who voted wanted this.
Imagine if MAGAts are in control of the regulatory agencies.
Oh wait... don't have to imagine
Coming soon™ 2025
🥲
- As much as I agree with the sentiment, this strikes me as similar to when MAGAts would post pictures of empty store shelves during COVID and would say it’s what Biden’s America would look like. We all laughed because they were literally pictures of Trump’s America.
  I understand that Trump is going to gut federal agencies but…this is happening right now. Under Biden’s watch.
  
  And it's still, for the moment, a screw-up. Something that slipped through the cracks. Deregulation means not even trying to stop it anymore, so it'll be normal. Or, one layer of protection will be gone.
LoL! I'm a Pro Life Republican and January can't come SOON ENOUGH! Once Trump is in Office I won't have to HEAR about ANY of this (even though it'll be Happening MORE Frequently because of Lack of Regulations! I just won't HEAR about it because it'll be ILLEGAL to Mention!)!
The power of deregulation is literally killing people.
- This has nothing to do with deregulation. If it did, they wouldn't be removing contaminated carrots and you would never have heard of this.
  Those "non-existent regulations" are what forced the recall.
Next time this happens under RFK's tenure as secretary of HHS, there won't be a recall. There wouldn't even be a warning. They'll just stay on shelves, hospitalizing and killing even more people.
Ugh, talk about a bad way to go. I once got food poisoning that needed a trip to the hospital, which is what ecoli is. I needed 2 units of water. Fortunately I'm not at risk so it cleared up fine with some antibiotics. But sitting yourself to death, while it sounds funny, is actually kinda awful.
- Shitting*
- Stomach pain can be easily some of the worst pain.
Deregulation and climate devastation. Name a more iconic duo. We are so fucked.
Dang I just bought some onions.
- It's ok to eat them if you cook them. Maybe make yourself some delicious caramelized onions!
  
  This is not entirely true. E. coli can produce heat-stable enterotoxins that will still make you sick even after cooking/killing the microbe. Probably best to toss or at least wash them before using.
  Edit: assuming they're from one of the listed brands and match the recall window.
  
  https://juliachildsrecipes.com/soup/julia-childs-french-onion-soup/
  
  So the people who died from the carrots didn't cook them?
So despite having heavy restrictions regarding taking foodstuffs on flights causing mass inconvenience, they don't really do the simple work of sending random samples of packed stuff for lab testing? Meaning that buying stuff in a packet, while more expensive than buying from a street peddler in an unregulated country, is really not safer?
Ok
- See, government regulations are just red tape and inefficiency. It's much better if you have to constantly risk death for the sake of more corporate profits.
  
  And when it's so easy to just bribe the red tapist, why not just let them have a few pennies and in turn get millions in extra profits.
The recalled organic baby carrots have best-by dates ranging from Sept. 11 through Nov. 12,
This article wasn't posted until November 17. I guess it's still helpful, but pre-packed baby carrots tend to get slimy after the best by date.
Well, they were organic alright. All natural shit fertilizer.
- "Well, they were organic alright. All natural shit fertilizer."
  Doesn't work that way. Even if the fields were fertilized with manure, they are done so long before planting - it's literally in the National Organic Program regulations that certified organic farms are required to follow. It's also just common practice anyway. Because duh, root vegetables.
  The main and pretty much only source of contamination is in the harvesting, processing, and handling. Not just people but equipment like conveyor belts. For example, "baby carrots" are almost never grown small but big carrots cut up by machines, which -no surprise- are easily contaminated.
This is going to become more & more common once trump takes over.
that is ok, you will forget all about these once they start selling raw milk without any control
Y'all know those migrants who pick your produce can't afford to leave the big fields to use the bathroom so they let it fly in the fields - enjoy.
- Already blaming immigrants and shifting away from the real issue at hand. After Trump is installed, you will see more of these contaminations or not, because probably it will be forbidden to report them
  
  Already blaming immigrants
  A complete lack of understanding is apparent. How is it "blaming immigrants" when the system is set up that way? The owners pay pennies for each container the workers harvest. Workers can't afford to lose pay by going to the far off toilets and the bosses know that.
- Blame the corporations. They dump huge quantities of cow shit in the fields. Also blame the factory farms for producing the shit.
- Human waste has been used before, but don't forget that it's an extremely profitable industry.
  
  It's not inherently a problem to utilize human waste for fertilizer, so long as it's been processed correctly. They've been doing it for hundreds of years in East Asia by inoculating the waste with lactic acid bacteria.
  From the article you posted it seems the American way to "process" the waste is to just dry it out.
- It's not surprising to me that people are misinterpreting your comment, which is factual. If you are doing piece work on a large industrial farm and your nearest toilet is a 10 minute walk one way, you are very unlikely to take the time. This is only one vector but it's an important one.
  On most smaller farms a great deal more care is exercised. On my farm we have a very strict hand-washing rule and have only ever paid by the hour. We also don't have any processing equipment so the produce goes from the field to a carefully cleaned bin and straight to the farmer's market or consumer directly. No conveyor belts, warehouse storage or re-packaging involved.
Wait, you mean there are non-organic carrots out there? 🤔
The backing on writable CDs is considered organic, so are those edible?
Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_compound
- Check out big brain over here
  
  Motor oil is organic.
  How is there even such a thing as 'organic' carrots if there isn't also 'non-organic' carrots?
  What the F is a non-organic fruit or vegetable?
  Please explain..
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food
  
  No shit? That's exactly what I referred to in another comment in this thread, organic foods are fertilized with literal shit.
  Wonder why we get diseases in our organic foods?

65 comments