An urgent national recall was issued this week for pre-packaged lettuce and salad linked to a salmonella outbreak that has hospitalised two people.
The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services said it had identified a number of cases of the infection linked to lettuce grown and packaged by Victorian company Tripod Farmers.
It is sold at Coles, Woolworths, Bi-Lo and other grocers as Coles 4 Leaf Mix, Woolworths salad mix, SupaSalad Supamix and Wash N Toss salad mix.
The affected products have best before dates leading up to and including 14 February and are in all states and territories except Tasmania and Western Australia.
The health department identified the lettuce after recording an unusually high level of salmonella anatum strain infections and traced a number of those back to the products.
So far this year there have been 28 adult cases of salmonella anatum – mostly adults - notified to the department, and the recent outbreak was linked back to the Tripod Farmers lettuce.
Tests of three products from two batches also tested positive for salmonella anatum bacterium.
The 28 cases were mostly adults. No pregnant women had been affected so far and no deaths had been linked to the outbreak.
It is believed a fertiliser may have caused the bacteria to spread at the Tripod Farmers market in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.
Vegetable grower group AUSVEG has responded with the the assurance that the unsafe fresh and prepackaged lettuce products all have been recalled.
“Given the significant amount of leafy vegetable products that are on store shelves every year, food safety incidences are exceedingly rare, and the food recall system has been swift and effective in responding to this isolated case,” said a spokesperson for AUSVEG.
“There is a large number of growers around the country who supply leafy vegetables and Australian consumers can be confident that all other Australian produce outside of the recalled lines is safe for consumption.”
Shortly after the salmonella announcement, a consumer named Zoe Perry posted a video on Facebook showing a hairy arachnid inside her bag of Woolworth’s Italian Style Salad Mix.
Perry's video was viewed more than two million times in the first seven hours of posting.
