An outbreak of listeria that killed one person and made a dozen others sick was linked to a Dole facility in OH that makes bagged salads, federal officials announced today.
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The CDC said it received reports of the listeria outbreak from Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, starting July 5.
The CDC said laboratory and epidemiologic evidence indicated that packaged salads produced at Dole’s processing facility in Springfield, Ohio, were likely the source of the outbreak.
Packaged salads produced at Dole’s Springfield facility were sold under various brand names including Fresh Selections, Simple Truth, Marketside, The Little Salad Bar, President’s Choice and the company’s namesake.
The packages have a letter A in the manufacturing code on the package.
An investigation began in September, the CDC said, but the source of the infections was unknown until this month when lab tests confirmed listeria in salads collected from the Springfield facility.
In a statement, Dole said its other facilities are not linked to the outbreak.
Listeriosis, caused by eating food contaminated with listeria, primarily affects older adults, pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems.
Wash cutting boards, surfaces, and utensils used to serve or store packaged salads.
What should I do if I ate Dole brand packaged salad?
The mild symptoms of listeriosis may include fever, muscle aches, nausea or diarrhea, while severe symptoms can include headache, poor co-ordination, seizures or neck stiffness.
Additional tests showed that the Listeria isolate from the packaged salad was highly related genetically to isolates from ill people.
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In the milder form of the disease, symptoms can start the day after eating a contaminated product, but for the more serious form of the disease, the incubation period generally averages about 21 days and can be up to 70 days.
