The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a public health alert for 13 frozen soup and bowl products. According to a press release from FSIS, these food items might be “contaminated with foreign material, specifically wood, in an FDA-regulated ingredient, cilantro.”
This is a good day to be one of those soap-tasting cilantro haters.
Prompting this public health alert, FSIS was notified that the cilantro used in many of these products had been recalled for a foreign material. So far, the potentially contaminated frozen items have been shipped to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The affected brands include Molly’s Kitchen, Sysco, Healthy Request, Campbell’s, Vital Pursuit, and Meijer Crafted Market.
The specific recalled products include the following:
- Frozen Molly’s Kitchen White Bean Chicken Chili
- Frozen Molly’s Kitchen Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Frozen Molly’s Kitchen Baja Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Frozen Sysco Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Frozen Healthy Request Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Frozen Molly’s Kitchen Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Frozen Campbell’s Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Frozen Campbell’s Baja Style Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Frozen Campbell’s Spicy Chicken Nacho Soup
- Frozen Vital Pursuit Southwest Style Beef Taco Bowl
- Frozen Campbell’s Verve Wicked Thai Style Soup with Chicken
- Meijer Crafted Market Coconut Chicken Thai Style Soup
FSIS anticipates more items will be added to this list. The service worries of a possible nationwide impact and recommends consumers check FSIS’s website for updates.
“FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ and institutional refrigerators or freezers,” the release reports. “Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them, and institutions are urged not to serve the products. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”
Note that this is a public health alert and not a recall, though the cilantro itself was recalled.
According to the USDA, “A food recall involving FSIS-regulated products is a voluntary action by a company to remove adulterated or misbranded products from commerce. A recall is intended to protect the public from unsafe and improperly labeled foods.”
On the other hand, a public health alert serves “to inform the public about potential health risks in cases where a recall cannot be recommended.”
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