Fresh meat and produce recalls are nothing new, but if you thought Costco's frozen aisles were safe from sickness and death? Think again.
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00:00Fresh meat and produce recalls are nothing new,
00:03but if you thought Costco's frozen aisles were safe from sickness and death, think again.
00:08The frozen waffle scene took a blow when Costco removed Krusty's Frozen Belgian
00:12Waffles from stores in October 2024. Krusty's parent company, Treehouse Foods,
00:16issued the recall when Listeria monocytogenes was discovered during routine in-house testing
00:22at its Brantford, Ontario, plant. Not to be alarmist, but Treehouse Foods makes almost
00:27every frozen pancake and waffle brand you've ever heard of, except Eggo.
00:31Fortunately, Costco's waffle lovers still have Eggo.
00:34"...Lego my Eggo."
00:36The FDA hasn't disclosed how many pounds of recalled product were involved,
00:40but judging by how many products were affected, it had to be a lot. On the upside,
00:44as of late November 2024, no illnesses or deaths have been linked to this recall.
00:50A humongous boar's head deli meat recall shook the food industry in the summer of 2024,
00:55becoming one of the deadliest food recalls of all time. Come fall,
00:59Bruce Pack was the next meat manufacturer to grapple with a recall of terrifying proportions.
01:04And this time, Costco's supply was affected. As of November 2024, Bruce Pack has recalled
01:09nearly 12 million pounds of chicken products due to a Listeria contamination at its plant
01:14in Durant, Oklahoma. The frozen items pulled from Costco's shelves are El Monterrey Mexican
01:19Grilled Chicken and Cheese Taquitos, and various chicken burritos made by Red's All Natural.
01:24Oh, you know what? That's actually very good. No, there's a subtle hint of…
01:28Blech!
01:30The affected products were sold at Costco between July and October 2024,
01:34and included Ted's Southwestern Grilled Chicken Mini Burritos, Grilled Chicken and Cheddar Burritos,
01:40and Chicken Chorizo Breakfast Burritos. Unlike the disaster at boar's head,
01:44no one has yet died from the Bruce Pack chicken recall. But it's still a disaster.
01:48In addition to the scroll of frozen and fresh chicken products recalled from the retail market,
01:52Bruce Pack's tainted chicken was also distributed in school cafeterias.
01:572024 was a bad year for frozen waffles. Before mega-breakfast brand Kodiak was
02:02looped into Treehouse Foods' colossal October 2024 Listeria recall, its protein-packed buttermilk
02:08and vanilla waffles were recalled that August. The Class 2 recall was due to the presence of
02:12a foreign contaminant, soft plastic film. Plastic pieces inside food, which are the
02:17result of manufacturing errors, present a choking hazard to those who eat them.
02:21Kodiak recalled over 7,000 boxes of waffles, amounting to more than 12 tons of product.
02:27A letter went out to Costco members who may have purchased the recalled waffles,
02:30which were sold in the Midwest between July 15 and August 25, 2024. Frozen food recalls
02:36are particularly concerning due to the long shelf of these foods. In this instance,
02:40Kodiak's plastic tainted waffles weren't set to expire until January 10, 2026.
02:46Who doesn't love a little frozen cookie dough from time to time?
02:49A chocolate chip cookie. Chocolate chip cookie important to me too.
02:52Yeah, it mean whole lot to me. Important."
02:55Costco was all about the quick bake with its name brand, Chocolate Chunk Frozen Cookie Dough,
03:00until it was recalled in May 2024. The recall was voluntarily issued after Costco's cookie
03:05dough supplier found salmonella contamination at the factory. The frozen cookie dough was
03:09manufactured by Rise Baking Company's subsidiary brand, South Coast Baking,
03:14based in Springdale, Arkansas. Raw cookie dough that South Coast Baking manufactured
03:18for other retailers, including Costco rival Sam's Club and cafe chain Panera, were also affected.
03:24The recall impacted 21 states, but no reports of salmonellosis linked to South Coast Baking
03:29products were ever publicly confirmed. The FDA terminated the cookie dough recall in November
03:342024. Frozen organic strawberries sound delicious. Hepatitis A, not so much.
03:40In March 2023, Costco had a regional problem when its strawberry supplier,
03:45California Splendor, distributed some bad batches to locations in Southern California
03:49and Hawaii. A recall was initiated for the affected four-pound bags sold under Costco's
03:54in-house brand, Kirkland Signature. Unfortunately, a related hepatitis A outbreak was already in
03:59progress. Between November 2022 and May 2023, 10 people fell ill across four West Coast states.
04:07The CDC suspected more sick people were out there, or at least people who were about to be sick.
04:12Not everyone who contracts a foodborne illness reports it, so statistics recorded during
04:16outbreaks are typically lower than the actual numbers. What's more, hepatitis A symptoms can
04:20take up to 50 days to manifest, giving the CDC reason to worry that the numbers could rise.
04:26In response to what was happening with California Splendor's product,
04:29Scenic Fruit Company out of Gresham, Oregon, another Costco supplier, also recalled frozen
04:34organic strawberries. Both distributors imported strawberries from the same grower in Baja,
04:39California, Mexico. The hepatitis A strain responsible for the outbreak was identical
04:44to the strain behind an organic strawberries recall in 2022, also involving strawberries
04:50grown in Baja, California. When the CDC concluded its 2023 investigation,
04:54four hospitalizations had occurred, but no fatalities.
04:59Hard, clear plastic found in Foster Farms chicken patties triggered a recall in October 2022.
05:05The frozen chicken patties were shipped to Costco distribution centers in Arizona,
05:08California, Colorado, Utah, and Washington, and may have been sold in Costco locations
05:13in several other states. The foreign contaminant was brought to Foster Farms' attention after
05:17customers began complaining that plastic pieces were embedded in the chicken patties.
05:21Costco sold the frozen patties in 20-count packages. Only one log code was implicated
05:26in the recall, but the quantity of chicken impacted was significant. Thankfully,
05:30no injuries were reported.
05:32Freezing temperatures don't kill all types of foodborne pathogens. In fact,
05:36the hepatitis A virus can survive in a variety of environmental conditions
05:39for significant periods of time. In June 2019, Costco's Kirkland Signature Frozen 3 Berry Blend
05:46was recalled over suspicion that it was contaminated with hepatitis A. The recall affected Costco,
05:51Kroger, and a handful of other stores in California, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico,
05:56and Nevada. All the berries recalled from these stores were sourced from Townsend Farms,
06:00a distributor out of Fairview, Oregon. FDA testing of Townsend Farms' blackberries came
06:05back positive for hepatitis A. The berries in question were sold in four-pound bags with
06:09best-by dates between February and May 2020. The recall affected nearly 70,000 pounds of
06:14frozen berries, but ultimately, there were no reported hepatitis A cases stemming from
06:19the contaminated products.
06:21International chocolate icon Nestle has been in business since the 19th century,
06:26but it got in trouble in 2016 with one of its most iconic frozen treats, the drumstick. That
06:31October, 16- and 24-count boxes of Nestle drumsticks were recalled due to concerns that
06:36Listeria monocytogenes might be present in the sweet treat. The issue originated at Nestle USA's
06:42Bakerfield, California, production plant. In-house quality control testing indicated the presence of
06:47Listeria monocytogenes on surfaces and equipment that had come into contact with the drumsticks,
06:52which were distributed at Costco stores nationwide.
06:55"...bacteria."
06:56Costco released a public announcement to consumers warning them that,
06:59although Listeria bacteria hadn't turned up in the actual drumstick ice creams,
07:03Nestle was recalling the product due to the contamination in the factory.
07:07Nestle tried to stop the drumsticks before they were shipped to retailers,
07:10but some of them made it to Costco. Thankfully, there were no Listeriosis reports connected to
07:15the recall. Listeriosis can be deadly to elderly or immunocompromised individuals
07:19and is known to cause miscarriages or stillbirths when contracted by pregnant women.
07:24Shoppers looking to buy frozen vegetables at Costco in spring 2016
07:28were in for a rude awakening when the store recalled products manufactured by its wholesaler,
07:33CRF Frozen Foods. Product testing performed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture returned
07:38positive results for Listeria in samples of organic petite green peas and organic
07:43white sweet corn. Costco was hardly alone in dealing with the CRF recall.
07:48456 products sold under more than 40 brand names were removed from stores.
07:54"...welcome to Costco. I love you."
07:56The recall didn't happen soon enough. CRF immediately suspended operation at its
08:00Pasco, Washington facility once the recall was announced. But seven people in three states
08:06had already fallen ill with Listeriosis, which was traced by public health investigators back
08:10to CRF Frozen Vegetables. Thirty frozen vegetable varieties were connected to
08:14CRF's Listeria troubles, and although more than 164 million pounds of product were recalled,
08:20two deaths were attributed to the contamination.
08:23Foster Farms' 3.25-pound bag of frozen grilled chicken strips vanished from Costco's shelves in
08:30September 2014, recalled over a possible Listeria contamination. After in-house quality control
08:36testing found Listeria monocytogenes in the chicken strips, Foster Farms stopped shipping
08:40the contaminated lot, but some of it had already landed in freezers at Costco distribution centers
08:45in California, Texas, Utah, and Washington. In order to keep the public safe, Foster Farms
08:50and Costco worked with the Food Safety and Inspection Service to recall nearly 40,000
08:55pounds of the precooked frozen chicken strips. It was a lot of product to lose, but the precaution
09:00paid off, as there were no Listeriosis cases reported in conjunction with the recall.
09:052014 was a terrible year for Costco's staple brand, Foster Farms. It faced more than one
09:10frozen food recall and grappled with multiple types of foodborne bacteria in its protection facility.
09:16Oh, it says here you guys are from Foster Farms, and you won't mind taking a little test for me,
09:21then, would you?
09:24Things got serious in October 2013 when an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella
09:29that sickened over 600 people in 29 states and Puerto Rico was traced back to Foster Farms'
09:34chicken. The company drew a flurry of criticism when, rather than recall its contaminated products,
09:40it claimed that cooking the chicken to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit
09:45would kill salmonella. Not a good look. By July 2014, after two cases of salmonella
09:50Heidelberg in two months were directly linked to Foster Farms, the company finally issued a
09:54recall for numerous chicken products at risk of contamination. Both frozen and fresh chicken
09:59products were included in the recall. The affected product totaled over 1 million pounds.
10:04Heat-and-eat frozen entrees are big at Costco, but the selection was lighter than usual in March
10:102008. After Discover Cuisine, red curry chicken and jasmine rice was recalled by the USDA.
10:16Tests conducted by the FSIS found listeria monocytogenes in the product. Costco,
10:21Whole Foods, and several other grocery stores were carrying the product at the time it was recalled.
10:26To prevent the spread of listeriosis amongst consumers, more than 16,000 pounds of Discover
10:31Cuisine's chicken curry disappeared from commercial freezers. Fortunately,
10:35no cases of listeriosis were associated with the Discover Cuisine recall.