Carrot E. coli outbreak brings new concerns to Colorado shoppers

Word of another E. coli outbreak has rattled customers 10 days before Thanksgiving. More than a dozen brands of organic carrots is now revoked with warnings to consumers not to eat them. One person is known to have become ill in Colorado, but the recalled products were all produced by Grimmway Farms and sold under a variety of brand names.

They were shipped directly to retail distribution centers nationwide in the United States. There are a total of 39 known cases nationwide in 18 states with one death.

“I mean, it’s part of a bigger problem, right? When you deregulate industries, when you make food safety not a priority,” said a shopper Monday night in Denver.

Illness typically starts three to four days after ingesting the bacteria, but it can take up to 10 days to feel sick. The symptoms of E.coli poisoning include abdominal cramps, diarrhea, excessive vomiting, and a fever over 102 degrees. The carrots may be linked to an outbreak of E. coli O121:H19, which is a different strain than the one recently linked to onions in McDonald’s products that sickened 104 people and killed one who lived in western Colorado.

“E. coli only comes from one place, and that’s understandably human and animal feces. And where is it found? It’s found on the ground. It’s found in the fields where these vegetables are grown,” said Ron Simon, a lawyer specializing in food safety.

Simon represents 61 people in the outbreak linked to McDonald’s.

“What should have happened is that both the onions and the carrots in this case should have been put through a sanitation procedure where they wash the vegetables and they put them in a chlorine bath and sometimes they irradiate them to kill all that bad. bacteria and then when that’s done they have to test to see if those procedures got all the bacteria.”

It prevents almost all cases from getting through to consumers, but if there are gaps or errors, contamination can end up on products in stores.

A CBS News analysis found that foodborne illnesses have increased 42% since 2013 in regions monitored by the CDC.

“They’re happening more often as the food supply chain becomes more and more consolidated. Where we have fewer and fewer growers or processors,” said Abigail Horn, a professor who studies food systems data for safety and health applications at the University of Southern California.

“I mean, this is the kind of thing that’s just going to continue to get worse,” the Denver shopper worried.

From the CDC:
Whole organic carrots
• Were available for purchase in stores approx. from 14/8/2024 to 23/10/2024
• There are no best-if-used-by dates on the bags of organic whole carrots.
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Marketside, Nature’s Promise, O-Organic, President’s Choice, Simple Truth, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Wholesome Pantry
Baby organic carrots
• Best if-used-within dates from 9/11/2024 to 11/12/2024
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Grimmway Farms, Marketside, Nature’s Promise, O-Organic, President’s Choice, Raley’s, Simple Truth, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Healthy Pantry