The Kane County Health Department is advising residents that Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc., is voluntarily withdrawing from the market all Dole-branded and private label packaged salads processed at its Springfield, OH, plant because the products may be contaminated with listeria.

You can view the product list at the CDC’s Listeria Outbreaks page.

The products were distributed in numerous states, including Illinois. So far, a total of 12 people in six states have reported becoming ill with listeria since July, 2015. However, none of those have been reported in Illinois. Products subject to the voluntary withdrawal are identified with a product code beginning with the letter “A” in the upper right-hand corner of the package.

No additional Dole facilities are affected. Retailers and consumers who have any remaining product with an “A” code should not consume it, and are urged to discard it. Retailer and consumer questions about the voluntary withdrawal should be directed to the Dole Food Company Consumer Response Center at 800-356-3111 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

The CDC offers advice to consumers, retailers and restaurants at on this page of its website.

Listeriosis, a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, is an important public health problem in the United States. The disease primarily affects older adults, pregnant women, newborns, and adults with weakened immune systems. However, rarely, people without these risk factors can also be affected.

Retailers which carry Dole products produced in its Springfield, OH plant (with the product code beginning with the letter “A” in the upper right-hand corner of the package) should check their store shelves and warehouse inventories to confirm that no withdrawn product is available for purchase by consumers. Dole Fresh Vegetables’ customer service representatives have been contacting retailers, and are in the process of confirming that the withdrawn product has been removed from the supply chain.

CDC News Release on Listeria Outbreak

Since September 2015, CDC has been collaborating with public health officials in several states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate a multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections. Listeria can cause a serious, life-threatening illness.

Public health investigators are using the PulseNet system to identify illnesses that may be part of this outbreak. PulseNet is the national subtyping network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by CDC. DNA “fingerprinting” is performed on Listeria bacteria isolated from ill people by using techniques called pulsed-field gel electrophoresis  and whole genome sequencing. PulseNet manages a national database of these DNA fingerprints to identify possible outbreaks. WGS gives a more detailed DNA fingerprint than PFGE.

Twelve people infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria have been reported from six states since July 5, 2015. The number of ill people reported from each state is as follows: Indiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (4), New Jersey (1), New York (4), and Pennsylvania (1). WGS has been performed on clinical isolates from all 12 ill people and has shown that the isolates are highly related genetically.

Listeria specimens were collected from July 5, 2015 to December 23, 2015. Ill people range in age from 3 years to 83, and the median age is 66. Sixty-nine percent of ill people are female. All 12 ill people reported being hospitalized, including one person from Michigan who died as a result of listeriosis. One of the illnesses reported was in a pregnant woman.

The outbreak can be illustrated with a chart showing the number of people who were diagnosed each week. This chart is called an epidemic curve or epi curve.

SOURCE: CDC news release

About the Kane County Health Department

In active partnership with our community, the Kane County Health Department improves the quality of life and well-being of all residents by developing and implementing local policies, systems, and services that protect and promote health, and prevent disease, injury and disability. Visit the Health Department’s Facebook Page and sign up for the award-winning “Health Matters” newsletter.