U.S. health officials are investigating a new outbreak of salmonella illnesses tied to a Florida grower whose tainted cucumbers were linked to more than 550 illnesses last year.
Cucumbers grown by Florida-based Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales have been linked to illnesses in at least 26 people in 15 states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported late Monday. At least nine people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported.
The cucumbers were sold to restaurants, stores and food service distributors between April 29 and May 19 and may still be within their shelf life this week. Illnesses were reported between April 2 and April 28, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From early recalls, it looks like the product was sold direct by the grower and to Sysco, a major distributor. A huge portion of restaurants use Sysco, and Sysco hasn’t specified what states they sent impacted product to in the recalls I’ve seen.
I was digging through my purchases this morning looking at the recalled Sysco items. I have a few places on the west side of the US using a few of the items, but those distribution centers were sourcing from a different grower.
Food goes through so many hands that early-stage contamination recalls tend to take a while to cascade out to things that are useful to a end-user.