Think Twice Before Buying These Items From Kroger
Unexpected food contaminants can ruin a great party, a family dinner, and your life. From produce teeming with bacteria to metal fragments in chicken, these Kroger recalls had people thinking twice about their purchases.
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00:00Unexpected food contaminants can ruin a great party, a family dinner, and your life. From
00:06produce teeming with bacteria to metal fragments in chicken, these Kroger recalls had people
00:11thinking twice about their purchases.
00:15Hepatitis A is an inflammatory disease of the liver that usually comes from consuming
00:19contaminated food or water. Due to its seriousness, any suspicion that a batch of food might be
00:24infected should be taken seriously. Thankfully, Kroger reacted promptly in 2019 when some
00:30of its very own frozen berries were found to be carrying the virus.
00:34After a sampling performed by the FDA, three frozen berry products put out by Kroger's
00:38private selection brand were found to be contaminated with hepatitis A, triple berry medley, in
00:44both the 16-ounce and 48-ounce-sized bags, along with the 16-ounce frozen blackberries.
00:50Kroger reacted quickly, pulling the products in question from store shelves and contacting
00:54those who had purchased the berries, advising them to speak with their doctors if they'd
00:58already consumed the product. While the recall almost certainly ruined a few smoothie plans,
01:03it doesn't appear to have resulted in any sick shoppers thanks to quick action on Kroger's
01:07part.
01:08A full and complete list of allergens is arguably the most important element a product can feature,
01:14as an accidental rendezvous with something like gluten or peanuts can prove dangerous,
01:19in some cases even fatal, for people with sensitivities. That's why the recent salad
01:23bowl recall at Kroger grocery stores had the potential to be so problematic. It involved
01:28an undisclosed allergen on a prepackaged product.
01:31The Kroger Apple Walnut with Chicken Salad Bowl Kit is a ready-to-go meal featuring a
01:35fresh spring mix, grilled chicken chunks, chopped apples, dried cranberries, walnuts,
01:40blue cheese crumbles, and a sweet vinaigrette to top it all off. With nothing but a shake,
01:44you've got yourself a quick and healthy lunch — a lunch that appeared to be safe for those
01:49with other gluten sensitivities, seeing as there was no wheat listed on the label. Unfortunately,
01:54the label was incorrect, and Kroger's salad bowls were yanked from shelves in March 2024
01:59on the basis of this undisclosed wheat allergen. Nearly 20,000 pounds of the product were recalled,
02:05but as of this video, the salad bowls appear to be available again with the allergen list
02:09updated.
02:10The original Moose Tracks ice cream flavor was made famous by the company Denali. The
02:15original recipe is a creamy vanilla base with peanut butter cups and chocolate fudge
02:19mixed in. Since its inception and incredibly positive reception among consumers, many companies
02:24and brands have recreated the iconic flavor. One of these is Kroger, whose multiple different
02:29Private Selection Moose Tracks ice cream variants are staples in its freezer aisle. However,
02:34in 2011, 10 states found the freezers of their local Kroger locations suddenly cleared out
02:39of their favorite peanut butter and chocolate dessert for a time. The Private Selection
02:43Denali Extreme Moose Tracks ice cream was recalled because it didn't list peanuts on
02:48the allergy label. Logically, it makes sense that an ice cream based on peanut butter would
02:52have peanuts.
02:53What is it, peanut butter?
02:54That's right, that's right.
02:55It is!
02:56That's what I think it is.
02:57Is it a peanut butter cup?
02:58But such an omission could easily prove dangerous for someone who's not already familiar with
03:02what Moose Tracks is. For the sake of avoiding a potentially lethal bout of anaphylaxis and
03:07the many lawsuits that would produce, this particular recall, though it may have seemed
03:11unnecessary for many Moose Tracks lovers, was an important one.
03:15Most potato salad recipes call for eggs, which can make it hard for cookout guests with an
03:19egg allergy. But if you were shopping at Kroger in April 2024, you might have been excited
03:24to come across SimpliSide's Jax Potato Salad. The allergen label listed no eggs, giving
03:29the impression that, at last, you had found a safe site to provide to egg-sensitive guests.
03:34Unfortunately, the label on the back of this particular batch of Jax was incorrect. An
03:39accidental swap had occurred between another of the company's products, resulting in Jax
03:43Potato Salad being incorrectly labeled as egg-free when it wasn't. The affected batches
03:48were recalled from the 21 Kroger locations.
03:52Like most grocery stores, Kroger sells a number of different meats in its deli, ready-sliced
03:56and perfect for a quick sandwich. But while lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, or sliced cheddar
04:01make excellent toppings for an easy lunch, Listeria monocytogenes doesn't.
04:05In January 2004, Kroger's Private Selection Roast Beef was recalled from 20 different
04:10states after a sample taken from one of its counters in Atlanta, Georgia was found to
04:15be infected. Listeria can lead to symptoms such as high fever, stiff neck, nausea, diarrhea,
04:20and in very young, very old, or immunocompromised individuals, it can even lead to death. The
04:26recall notice didn't mention exactly which flavors were affected, but did say that the
04:30Private Selection Angus Roast Beef and Cajun Roast Beef variants weren't contaminated.
04:36Just as it is in people, vitamin D is a necessary nutrient for our four-legged buddies. In extremely
04:41large doses, however, it begins to have the opposite effect, even to the point of becoming
04:45life-threatening. While commercial dog foods take care to maintain safe levels of all vitamins
04:50and nutrients included within their mixtures, one unfortunate mishap involving the vitamin
04:54D levels of dog food brands in 2018 caused a recall at Kroger and other grocery chains.
05:01Kroger's Abound Chicken & Brown Rice dog food, alongside multiple other brands, was recalled
05:05in December 2018 after potentially deadly amounts of vitamin D were found as a result
05:10of FDA testing. The brands were traced to the same manufacturer, Sunshine Mills, Inc.,
05:15and six dogs got sick as a result of the incident.
05:18Exactly how this nutritional defect was corrected is unclear, but the recipe was apparently
05:23fixed as the products are safely available on store shelves today.
05:27Since fresh produce only lasts for a limited time, shoppers tend to pick it up pretty frequently.
05:32So if a dangerous bacteria is hiding out among the piles of greens at your local grocer,
05:36it has the potential to be a very serious problem, particularly if the issue affects
05:40multiple different products. In 2022, Kroger was hit with a listeria infestation among
05:45its ready-made produce selection that resulted in more than 20 products being recalled.
05:50If you bought any veggies recently from Kroger, you want to double-check them.
05:53This recall included a mushroom stir-fry blend, snacking peppers, asparagus saute mix, diced
05:59red onions, two different types of salsa, layered bean dip, and a diced bell pepper
06:03and white onion packet, among many others.
06:06Despite the large number of items that were warned against, listeria was expected to affect
06:10only a handful of them, since just one sample that had undergone the testing actually ended
06:14up being positive. The problem is, you can't really tell which products are infected until
06:18it's too late.
06:20Chips and dip are probably the most convenient party foods you'll ever find. But if you're
06:24laying out a spread of salsa, hummus, or cheese dip that's contaminated with bacteria, then
06:29every single chip you dunk becomes a gamble with your health. Talk about a party pooper.
06:34And in 2020, Kroger pooped on all the parties when it issued a recall on a whopping 17 different
06:40popular cheese dips, including jalapeno Jarlsberg dip, a pimento cheese dip, and a smoked gouda
06:45dip, to name a few. Why? Because the onions in all the products came from one location
06:50that had been hit by potential salmonella contamination. While this was necessary given
06:54the health risks involved, it was no doubt disappointing for everyone trying to plan
06:58the perfect living room rager. Still, we'd argue that a brief bout of sadness is better
07:03than a case of salmonella.
07:05Ground beef is a versatile ingredient in too many dishes to count, but like anything else,
07:09it can come with a downside. If the contents of a cow's intestines get onto the eaten part
07:14of the cow when it's being slaughtered, it could contaminate the beef with E. coli. And
07:18since most ground beef at the store is a combination of many different moors, it's sometimes surprisingly
07:23hard to trace the contamination to its source. In 2008, Kroger found that many of its location's
07:29meat departments were littered with infected packs. That recall was a particularly nasty
07:34one, with over 30 people in the states of Ohio and Michigan getting sick. One even went
07:38so far as to take legal action against the company as a result of their hospitalization.
07:43This is hardly the only instance in which the company has been forced to issue a recall
07:47for infected ground beef. In 2018, Kroger and other stores recalled millions of pounds
07:52of beef that had been potentially contaminated. But just remember that E. coli is destroyed
07:57by heat, so cooking your meat makes it safe. Bad news for everyone who takes their beef
08:01raw, good news for everyone else.
08:04Who doesn't have a bag of frozen chicken strips stashed away in their freezer for quick weeknight
08:09Chicken strips are a go-to for busy nights, and Tyson is perhaps one of the most well-recognized
08:14producers of the popular product. However, an incident in 2019 had many shoppers reaching
08:19into their freezers and tossing those bags right into the trash. Why? Chunks of metal.
08:25That's right, 32 retailers, including Kroger locations in six states, were forced to recall
08:2911 million pounds worth of frozen Tyson chicken strips after multiple consumers reported that
08:34they'd found small metal fragments inside the meat.
08:37It's definitely something you don't want in your chicken."
08:39And since folks generally found these metal chunks by biting into a chicken strip, at
08:43least three people reported oral injuries. The massive recall covered dozens of states
08:48and international locations alike, and apparently that's not the only time it happened. In November
08:542023, Tyson also recalled 30,000 pounds of their Fun Nuggets for the same reason.
08:59Some customers said they found small pieces of metal inside the dinosaur-shaped chicken
09:04patties."
09:05Spinach is an incredibly nutritious vegetable that's chock-full of antioxidants, potassium,
09:09vitamin K, iron, and more. But if that bag of beautiful leaves you picked up from the
09:14store makes you sick with listeria, you aren't going to care how healthy it is. In 2021,
09:19Kroger's 10-ounce packs of spinach sold in 15 different states found themselves under
09:23suspicion for listeria and were immediately put on recall. Though it appears no one fell
09:28sick before the product was pulled off the shelves, the fact that it's relatively common
09:32for harmful bacteria to be present on spinach is off-putting, to say the least. Listeria
09:36is another bacteria that's destroyed by high heat, a.k.a. cooking it. But the fact that
09:41spinach is often eaten raw in salads and wraps makes this especially insidious.
09:47It's an unfortunate reality. Sometimes, in order to alert companies to the fact that
09:50there's a recall-worthy health risk involving a product, citizens must first become sick.
09:56That's exactly what happened in 2012, when a far-reaching outbreak of salmonella led
10:00to more than 470 reported cases across 43 states, including six deaths. At first, the
10:06source of the ever-spreading illness appeared to be a mystery, but the FDA pinned it on
10:10peanut butter produced by the company Sunland, Inc. The product was immediately pulled from
10:15the aisles where it was sold, but in the days that followed, the recall extended to Whole
10:19Nuts, as the true source of the outbreak was revealed to be peanuts from a manufacturer
10:23that had provided the peanuts for many other companies like General Mills, Kellogg's, and
10:28others.
10:29Since potentially infected peanuts had made their way into so many products from different
10:32brand names, a massive food pullback unfolded across U.S. grocers, Kroger included.
10:38Quaker Oats has become a household name, with its products gracing the aisles of what feels
10:43like every grocery store in the United States. From oats and cereal to granola bars and rice
10:47cakes, Quaker's breakfast and snack products are plentiful, which becomes a problem when
10:51they might be harboring salmonella.
10:53These are no ordinary oats."
10:56In December 2023, word came down from the Quaker Oats company. A number of its granola
11:00bar and cereal products were potentially carrying salmonella. Although this recall was incredibly
11:05wide-reaching and stretched across all 50 states, it only affected three products sold
11:10at Kroger — Quaker Valentine Minis, Quaker Reduced Sugar Chocolate Chip Granola Bars,
11:14and Quaker Chewy Dips Chocolate Chip. Incredibly, reports seem to suggest that no one actually
11:19fell ill during the unfolding of this wide-scale callback, but we're sure it was a sad day
11:23for Quaker fans everywhere.