The FDA Issued a Class I Recall on Ready-to-Eat Broccoli

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would like you to check if you have any broccoli in your freezer, as it may be part of a serious recall. 

On December 31, the (FDA) published a recall notice for Braga Fresh’s washed and ready-to-eat 12-ounce Marketside Broccoli Florets. The notice stated that the recall was initiated due to the “possibility of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes,” which Texas Health & Human Services discovered during random sampling from a Texas store location.

However, this week, Newsweek reported that the FDA escalated the broccoli recall to Class 1, which it defines as “a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death,” after it confirmed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a Listeria infection can be “especially harmful for some people, including pregnant women, newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems.” The FDA added that although otherwise “healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea,” Listeria monocytogenes infection can cause “miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.”

The CDC added that 1,600 people are infected with Listeria in the United States each year, and 260 people die from the infection. 

As Food & Wine originally reported, the recall notice states that the product has a best-if-used-by date of December 10, 2024, and is no longer in stores. However, the FDA is sending the notice out of an abundance of caution for consumers who may have purchased the product and put it in their freezers. No illnesses have been reported in connection with the broccoli to date. 

The recall is specifically for the 12-ounce bags of Marketside Broccoli Florets sold at Walmart stores. Each bag has the UPC code “6 81131 32884 5” printed on the back, along with the printed “Best if Used by Date Dec 10, 2024” and the lot code “BFFG327A6” on the front.

The product was distributed across 20 states, including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.