"US: Tainted lettuce - may be "the most confusing recall ever"

The produce counter at Kroger in Bristol is overflowing with heads of lettuce. News of a lettuce recall has been all over the Internet, so it was an unexpected sight. There were no warning signs posted with recall information. On return home, a careful online search brought up many news articles, but the actual details are very confusing. Food Safety News called this lettuce situation. The basic news, to the best of my understanding, is that Grower's Express in Salinas, California, has issued a voluntary recall of lettuce after notifying authorities that an unnamed neighboring field in Arizona has been found to be contaminated with salmonella, although they stress that none of their crops have been shown to be affected. The most unusual part of this announcement is that there is no indication at all of how to distinguish the affected lettuce.

One source in Utah had recommended that everyone throw away any lettuce with the Grower's Express Label, and this was quickly retracted. It is not even really a recall, in the true sense of the word; there are no government announcements that I can find. Grower's Express has recommended that the product be pulled from the shelves as a precautionary measure in seven states: Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada. The only stores specifically mentioned are Kroger and Smith Food and Drug. Oddly, Huliq reports that the company said that there may be other stores that have the lettuce, although they again stressed that none of the lettuce has not been shown to be contaminated at all!

Here is the announcement from the Kroger website:

LETTUCE ICEBERG WRAPPED, 24 CT
Affected in Smith's stores; Kroger stores located in North Carolina, Virginia, Eastern WV, Eastern Kentucky.

Reason: The product may be contaminated with SALMONELLA and, if eaten could result in severe illness to those individuals who may consume this product.

There are a lot of comments on many of these news reports ridiculing the non-recall recall. It is important, however, to realize how extremely meticulous the growers in California and neighboring Arizona are about the integrity of their produce.

Source: examiner.com