Frozen berry recall reaches Trader Joe's as Chilean supplier's E. coli traceback widens

A recall of frozen organic berries that began in Florida in early July has widened for a third time, with federal records showing the Chilean supplier expanded its recall again on October 2 to cover additional lots sold under Walmart's Great Value label and, for the first time, a product sold at Trader Joe's. The expansion comes even though the E. coli outbreak that originally prompted the recall was formally declared over by federal health officials three weeks earlier.

The supplier, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile, said the newly added lots may be contaminated with Escherichia coli O145:H28, a Shiga toxin-producing strain of E. coli, or STEC, that can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that may be bloody, and vomiting, and in some cases a kidney-damaging complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, particularly in young children.

What is newly covered

The October 2 notice adds several lot codes that had not previously been named, according to the company's filing posted on FDA's recall database:

• Great Value frozen Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10 oz. (UPC 7874211226), lot codes 6 031 01 and 6 041 01, best-by dates of January 31 and February 10, 2028
• Great Value frozen Organic Blueberries, 10 oz. (UPC 7874211213), lot codes 6 019 01, 6 040 01 and 6 163 01, best-by dates ranging from January 19 to June 12, 2028
• Trader Joe's frozen Organic Mixed Berry Blend, 12 oz. (UPC 00977654), lot code 6 051 01, best-by date February 20, 2028

The Great Value items were shipped to Walmart stores in 30 states and Puerto Rico, including Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas. The Trader Joe's product reached 26 states and the District of Columbia, among them Maryland, Colorado, Delaware and Michigan. FDA's notice describes the latest action as "a precautionary measure following traceback information" tied to the original recall, and states that no illnesses have been linked to the newly added lots.

A recall that outlived its outbreak

The episode traces back to early July, when the Florida Department of Health alerted federal health officials to a cluster of E. coli O145 infections. On July 3, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur issued its first recall, covering frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries and whole mixed berries sold at Publix. By August 1, Publix had expanded that recall to all lots of the affected items across eight Southeastern states, citing an abundance of caution. In early September, the company expanded the recall again to bring in Great Value-brand frozen Triple Berry Blend sold at Walmart, eventually covering 27 states and territories.

Federal investigators, however, had by then closed the case. According to the FDA's outbreak investigation page, the outbreak was declared concluded as of September 21, with a final count of 17 confirmed illnesses — 6 of them requiring hospitalization and none fatal — among residents of Florida and Georgia, with symptom onset dates spanning May 11 through August 2. Investigators reported that roughly 85 percent of interviewed patients recalled eating frozen blueberries before falling ill, and one sample collected from a Publix-sourced product tested positive for the outbreak strain, though samples the FDA collected directly from retail shelves came back negative.

The gap between the outbreak's official close and the recall's continued growth reflects a routine, if sometimes confusing, feature of food-safety enforcement: a company's internal traceback of ingredient lots, equipment runs and shipping records can keep surfacing potentially contaminated product long after epidemiologists have stopped finding new patients.

E. coli O145 is a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli that can cause illness characterized by severe stomach cramps, diarrhea which may be bloody, and vomiting.

Who is affected

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the Great Value Organic Blueberries, the newer Triple Berry Blend lots, or the Trader Joe's product named this week, FDA's notice says. The risk, officials say, lies with households that still have the affected bags in their freezers, since all three products carry best-by dates extending into 2028 and frozen berries are often kept for months. Shoppers in states as far from the outbreak's Southeastern origin as Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and Pennsylvania received shipments of the newly named lots, according to the distribution lists in the filing.

Both the Walmart expansion in early September and the original Publix recall drew coverage from health-news outlets at the time, each citing the same case counts federal officials later used to close the investigation — 17 illnesses and 6 hospitalizations, with no deaths, a tally also published on the federal outbreak tracking page for this investigation.

What consumers should do

FDA's instructions are unchanged from earlier phases of the recall: anyone with the affected lots should not eat them, and should either discard the product or return it to Walmart or Trader Joe's for a full refund. Shoppers are advised to check package UPC codes, lot numbers and best-by dates against those listed in the recall notice rather than relying on brand name or package appearance alone, since unaffected lots of the same products remain on sale. Questions can be directed to the company's U.S. food-safety contact line listed in the FDA filing. Anyone who has eaten the recalled berries and develops severe diarrhea, high fever or signs of dehydration is advised to contact a health care provider, since STEC infections can occasionally worsen in the days after symptoms begin, particularly in children and older adults.

Federal officials have not indicated whether further expansions are expected, and the underlying outbreak investigation has not been reopened. The recall remains open, and the agencies say they will update the public if new lots or retailers are identified through continuing traceback work.