WinCo Foods recalls salsa bean dip trays after viral video sparks peperoncini recall

WinCo Foods has pulled two of its deli-made salsa bean dip trays from stores in eight Western states after learning that a supplier's jarred peperoncini — already the subject of its own recall over a pest-contamination complaint that went viral on social media last month — may have ended up as an ingredient. According to the recall notice WinCo filed with the Food and Drug Administration, no pests were ever found in the dip itself and no illnesses have been reported, but the chain pulled the product anyway "with transparency for our customers and food safety in mind."

What was recalled

The recall covers two items made in WinCo's deli department: the WinCo Foods Salsa Bean Dip Tray Express, a 54-ounce tray, and a 104-ounce, 16-inch catering tray sold by special order only. Both were made with peperoncini bearing "Best If Used By" dates between Aug. 14 and Sept. 25, 2026, the roughly six-week window during which the recalled pepper lot was in circulation. The trays were sold in WinCo stores across Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington — the core of the Boise, Idaho-based chain's footprint in the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. WinCo also operates stores in Oklahoma and Texas, but those states were not named in the recall, suggesting the affected ingredient did not reach deli counters there.

How a jar recall became a deli recall

The chain of events began with a single lot of jarred peppers nearly 1,300 miles away in California. G.L. Mezzetta's own recall notice says the company pulled one lot of its 32-ounce Golden Greek Peperoncini, Medium Heat, after a customer complaint about a pest found inside a jar. The complaint reached a mass audience when a shopper's video showing what looked like a dead mouse in a jar of the peppers spread on social media in mid-September, prompting other buyers to check their own jars. Mezzetta announced its recall on Sept. 26, and Food Safety News reported at the time that the company had received no reports of illness linked to the lot, which was sold nationally through major chains.

WinCo's notice says it learned of the Mezzetta recall only after seeing "a video from another grocery chain circulating on social media," then traced its own deli supply chain to confirm the peppers had gone into its bean dip. Because the dip is a ready-to-eat, short-shelf-life deli item rather than a shelf-stable product, the company said it does not expect any of the recalled trays to still be sitting in customers' refrigerators by the time the notice was published. Food-safety specialists have long noted that a recall of a packaged ingredient rarely stays contained to that one product: when a grocer's deli, bakery or prepared-foods department uses a recalled item as a component, the finished item can trigger its own, separate recall once the retailer traces its supply chain — even if testing on the finished product turns up nothing, as happened here.

Who is affected, and what each company is saying

WinCo is a majority employee-owned chain headquartered in Boise, and one of the larger grocers in the Mountain West, with more than 130 stores. Shoppers who bought either dip tray during the affected window are advised to check the "Best If Used By" date and, if it falls between Aug. 14 and Sept. 25, discard the product or return it for a refund. The company has not said how many trays were sold, and early coverage of the recall likewise did not cite a volume figure, a sign of how quickly the notice moved from a regional supply chain to a public filing.

"While no pests were observed during the production of the bean dip trays, nor have there been any complaints, WinCo Foods has initiated this recall with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration, with transparency for our customers and food safety in mind."

That statement, from WinCo's company announcement, is the closest thing to a public comment either company has issued about the secondary recall. Mezzetta's own notice, filed a week earlier, said only that it takes the trust customers place in its products "seriously" and that it was cooperating with the FDA on the original lot. Neither company has said how the suspect jars passed quality checks before reaching retailers, and neither has disclosed how many finished-food items were ultimately affected. It is also a case study in how quickly a single viral video can cascade through a supply chain: the original complaint, posted to social media in mid-September, prompted Mezzetta's recall within roughly ten days, and WinCo's recall followed within another week.

What happens next

• Shoppers in the eight affected states should check dip-tray packaging for the "Best If Used By" window of Aug. 14 through Sept. 25, 2026.
• WinCo customers can call the company's customer service desk at 1-800-824-1706 or use its website contact form for a refund.
• Mezzetta's consumer-affairs team can be reached by email for questions about the original jarred-pepper lot.

Neither the FDA nor either company has reported any illnesses connected to either recall as of publication, and both notices remain posted on the FDA's public recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts listing pending further distribution checks. For now, the episode stands as a reminder that a single contaminated-product complaint, once it reaches a wide audience online, can ripple outward to other retailers that quietly used the same ingredient — turning a jar of pickled peppers into a dip-tray recall two states and three weeks removed from the original complaint.