Dole recalls bagged salad possibly tainted by E. coli

Dole announced an international recall of all Dole Hearts Delight bagged salad Monday, almost exactly a year after the spinach recall. \nA bag of the salad was found to contain E. coli through random screening at a grocery store in Canada, according to a press release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. \nThough no reports have been filed linking the lettuce to E.coli exposure, Dole Food Company is the world’s largest producer and marketer of fruit, vegetables and flowers. Much of the tainted product was processed at a plant in Springfield, Ohio, and sold in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, according to an Associated Presss article.\nThe voluntary recall affects all packages of Dole Hearts Delight sold in the U.S. and Canada with a “best if used by” date of Sept. 19 and a production code of “A24924A” or “A24924B,” the company said.\nKroger carries Dole Hearts Delight and Spencer Armstrong, code manager for the S. College Avenue Kroger, said all directions come straight from corporate. The Web site posts all recalls that pertain to the products it sells.\nEven though Bloomingfoods doesn’t carry Dole lettuce, Steve Stroup, co-op and community development director for Bloomingfoods, said they have developed a systematic process for dealing with this past year’s rash of recalls.\nBloomingfoods clears the product from the shelves, puts up signage, e-mails all customers on the electronic database and posts the recall and links to the FDA Web site on Bloomingfoods’ blog.\n“We get the word out to our 6,500 members that way,” Stroup said. Stroup said he had blogged the recall Monday, shortly after it was announced.\nSara Noori, part-owner of Sahara Mart, said she does not carry Dole Hearts Delight and hasn’t carried much bagged lettuce since the spinach recall last year. The spinach recall forced grocers to pull all mixed greens salads with spinach in them, which was a costly task, she said. \nE.coli bacteria will incubate in a person’s stomach for three to four days after contaminated food is consumed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Symptoms can include watery or bloody diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting. \nSymptoms can have extreme consequences in young children. The Web site advises people with similar symptoms to immediately seek a doctor.