NBC News
The Food and Medicines Administration (FDA) announced the withdrawal of cuckens cultivated by the company Bedner Growers, Inc. and distributed by Fresh Start produces Sales, Inc. due to a salmonella outbreak in several states that has become more than 20 people.
Florida headquarters distributed cucumbers to restaurants, wholesalers, retailers and distribution centers from April 29 to date, according to an FDA statement. The agency continues to work to determine where potentially contaminated vegetables were sold.
“Pepinos may have been sold individually or in smaller packages, with or without a label that may not carry the same brand, product name or expiration date,” the FDA warned. “For distributors, restaurants and retailers who have bought these cucumbers, the products were labeled as’Supers‘,’Selects‘ either ‘Plains‘”
The FDA researchers who carried out an inspection for monitoring the cucumbers last month picked up a sample that gave positive to the Salmonella Montevideo strain and “coincided with recent clinical samples of sick people,” added the agency.
The inspection was a monitoring of an African Salmonella outbreak linked to Bedner Growers, Inc. last year. Fresh Start produces salts, Inc. also removed entire cucumbers in 2024 due to possible Salmonella pollution.
Salmonella is a bacteria that can get sick to those who consume it when they drink contaminated foods, drink contaminated water or touch animals, fecal matter or areas where they live, according to the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC).
Sick people can present stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting between six hours And six days after infection, and symptoms can last up to a week.
Salmonella is “one of the main causes of food -transmitted diseases, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States and worldwide,” according to CDC. The bacteria causes around 1.35 million infections in the United States.
“Children under five years of age, elders and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to suffer serious infections,” said the FDA.
Until Friday, the FDA added, at least 26 people had become ill from the Broken in 15 states, including Florida, Alabama, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
Nine of the patients have been hospitalized, and 11 of the 13 interviewees declared having eaten cucumbers.
“Consumers, restaurants and retailers who bought or received potentially contaminated products, including wholesale products, must carefully clean and disinfect any surface or container that has played,” the FDA recommended.
The agency indicated that restaurants, retailers or distributors who have potentially contaminated cucumbers should throw them and notify customers. Those who do not know if they bought cucumbers should contact their suppliers to make sure, but if they are not yet, they must throw them and disinfect the areas where they were stored.
The FDA continues to investigate the outbreak.
