What’s up with all these food recalls?

Post Reports

The Washington Post

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🗓️ 5 December 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

Last month, organic carrots were recalled after they were linked to an E. coli outbreak across 18 states that left one dead. This week, cucumbers available in 19 states have been recalled after regulators fielded reports of at least 68 people falling ill from salmonella. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared a massive E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders to be over this week. Earlier this year, a Boar’s Head plant shut down and ceased making liverwurst following a deadly outbreak of listeria.

These kinds of high-profile incidents have many wondering about the country’s food safety system, even as the number of food recalls this year appears to be on track to go down slightly.

Today on “Post Reports,” co-host Elahe Izadi talks with national health-care reporter Rachel Roubein about how food regulation in the U.S. works, how bacteria like salmonella can wind up in vegetables like cucumbers and how to make sure the produce in our kitchens is safe to eat.

Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon with help from Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Lucy Perkins with help from Reena Flores and mixed by Justin Gerrish. Thanks also to Tracy Jan.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So I want to tell you a story about making dinner.
0:06.6	Maybe something like this has happened to you recently.
0:09.9	Last night, I decided to make a salad.
0:12.2	So I go into my fridge, I grab my lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, parsley, and then I see it,
0:19.2	a cucumber, innocently sitting in my crisper, and I freak out.
0:25.2	Was this cucumber safe? Would this cucumber make me sick? I was panicking because I've been hearing
0:33.1	about a cucumber recall in a salmonella outbreak. It's sickened dozens of people so far.
0:39.4	The company sun-fed produce has recalled cucumbers sold between October 12th and November 26
0:45.2	in more than two dozen states.
0:46.9	They were sold in some Albertsons, Wegmans.
0:49.3	But I didn't want to just throw away this cucumber.
0:53.1	It wasn't cheap.
0:56.6	And I love putting them in my salads.
1:05.3	So there I was off the clock, but putting my reporter hat back on to investigate the origin of my cucumber. My cucumber came from a farm called Sunset. This recall is for a distributor called SunFed. I googled, I researched, I called my best friend. Sunset cucumbers are grown in Canada. The recalled ones are grown in Mexico. Still, should I risk it? My friend said no way, not worth it. But I was like, they're
1:31.6	probably okay. And I thought, hey, I don't bungee jump or skydive. This is my version of
1:38.6	thrill-seeking, eating cucumbers. And I'm also just tired of worrying about food because of a recall. It feels like it's
1:47.1	been happening a lot. In recent months, we've seen recalls over carrots, eggs, and onions.
1:54.2	I think you're not the only one who's going through and trying to look at all of their foods.
2:01.6	That's Rachel Rubine.
2:03.0	She covers the food and drug administration for The Post.
2:06.2	And so I really wanted to ask Rachel, are all of these outbreaks and recalls normal?
2:12.3	I will tell you, in my household, we went through looking at all our boxes of waffles a few months ago because there was a waffle recall.
	...

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