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After a year packed with food recalls, 2025 is kicking off with yet another one — a broccoli recall over listeria concerns.
Braga Fresh, a California-based farm, recalled last week many of its 12-ounce bags of Marketside Broccoli Florets due to potential contamination of listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause serious infections.
The affected broccoli bags are marked with a “Best If Used By” date of Dec. 10, 2024, a UPC code of 6 81131 32884 5 located on the back, and a lot code of BFFG327A6 found on the front.
They were sold in Walmart (WMT-0.02%) stores in 20 states — Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday that although the affected broccoli are no longer in stores, customers who still have them in their freezers should not consume them and should discard them immediately.
Braga Fresh said the potential contamination was found “during random sampling by Texas Health & Human Services from a Texas store location where one of multiple samples yielded a positive test result.”
No illnesses have been reported so far in connection with this recall.
Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious listeriosis infections in young children, elderly people, and people with weakened immune systems. The FDA warned that listeria infections could cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
Even among healthy people, a listeria infection can lead to symptoms including high fever, headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
An estimated 1,600 people in the United States get listeriosis ever year with about 260 annual fatalities, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Following a year of recall after recall due to listeria contaminations that resulted in dozens of illnesses and even some deaths, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in December that it would implement new measures to strengthen its oversight of food processing facilities.