The latest onion recalls (Costco, Trader Joe’s among them) in the salmonella outbreak
More onions and onion-containing products have been recalled from store shelves and consumer refrigerators in the fallout from the 43-state Salmonella Newport outbreak.
And the stores hit in this round of recalls include Costco, Trader Joe’s and Ralphs.
Once the CDC traced the outbreak to onions produced by Thomson International, that triggered a double shot of recalls — Thomson’s 50-state recall of the onions it produced for various distributors and stores and the products that used those onions.
Onions 52 and Costco
Thomson supplies Onions 52, which distributes onions under its own brand and the Hartley’s Best brand. Costco uses both and had to notify members of these recalls of onions shipped from May 1 to July 31:
▪ Hartley’s Best Jumbo White Onions, 8-pound bags, Item No. 7003 shipped to stores in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
▪ Hartley’s Best Jumbo Red Onions, 8-pound bags, Item No. 88436 shipped to stores in the California Bay Area, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho or Alaska.
▪ Hartley’s Best Jumbo Yellow Onions, 10-pound bags, Item No. 67245 shipped to stores in the Northwest region, Colorado, Utah, the Los Angeles region and select San Diego region locations.
▪ Hartley’s Best Red Onions, 25-pound bags, Item No. 31297 shipped to stores in Salt Lake City, Denver and Dallas.
▪ Onions 52 Jumbo Red Onions wound up being used in Costco’s Cobb Salad and Spinach Salad sold by Alaskan Costcos in Northeast Anchorage and Fairbanks and Washington Costcos in Issaquah and Woodinville from July 29 through Aug. 1.
Trader Joe’s and Ralphs
Progressive Produce supplied some Trader Joe’s and Ralphs stores with onions from Thomson. They’ve got stickers with the brand Pacific Gold and were sold loose, in bulk bins.
The regular-sized red onions were sold at Trader Joe’s in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah while Ralphs sold the regular-sized yellow onions.
Salsa and Salmonella
Spokane Produce had to yank 15-ounce containers of Saddlin’ Up Salsa Hot (expiration 8/16/2020), Salsa Mild (expiration 8/11/2020) and Salsa Medium (expiration 8/5/2020 or 9/30/2020). Its recalled Salsa Verde came in 15-ounce (expiration 8/26/2020) and 1-gallon (expiration 8/11/2020 and 9/28/2020) containers.
The salsas were distributed out of Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho and sold only in retail stores. Consumers with questions should call Spokane Produce, 509-710-8301, Monday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Eastern time.
Salmonella hits about 1.35 million Americans each year. About 26,500 wind up hospitalized, usually with bloody diarrhea. Salmonella’s annual death toll averages around 420. For most people, it means four to seven days of diarrhea, stomachaches and fever.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 6:56 PM with the headline "The latest onion recalls (Costco, Trader Joe’s among them) in the salmonella outbreak."
