Frozen berries recalled in an E. coli outbreak

Most food recalls are over by the time they are announced, because the food has been eaten or has passed its date. This one is not. The recalled bags of organic frozen berries carry a best-by date of February 9, 2028, which means they are sitting in freezers now, and the Food and Drug Administration is telling people not to eat them.

What is recalled

Two retail brands, both supplied by the same Chilean packer, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos.

Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10-ounce bags, lot code 6040 01-6, best by February 9, 2028. Added to the recall on September 2, 2026. Sold at Walmart in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries, every lot. Publix recalled the lot codes it had already pulled and then, on July 29, extended it to all lots of four products: whole blueberries in 10-ounce, UPC 41415-06453, and 48-ounce, UPC 41415-12053; whole mixed berries in 10-ounce, UPC 41415-06753, and 48-ounce, UPC 41415-12153. Sold at Publix in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The first recall, on July 3, covered a single lot of GreenWise blueberries printed 6 040 01. The enforcement report that followed put the quantity for one of the Publix recalls at 60,320 units and classified it Class I, the agency's most serious category, which is reserved for products likely to cause serious health consequences or death.

The outbreak behind it

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with state health departments, are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O145:H28. As of the September 3 update, 17 people have been identified in two states, with illness onsets from May 11 to August 2, 2026. Eleven of the thirteen people interviewed said they had eaten frozen blueberries. Six people have been admitted to hospital. Nobody has died.

E. coli O145 is a Shiga toxin-producing strain. Symptoms begin somewhere between a few days and nine days after eating contaminated food, and include severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, which can be bloody, fever, nausea and vomiting. The serious complication is haemolytic uraemic syndrome, a form of kidney failure. It is more likely in young children and older adults, and it is why a recall of this kind is treated as Class I rather than as a precaution.

What the FDA asks people to do

Do not eat, sell or serve the recalled berries. Check the freezer, and throw the bags away or take them back to the shop for a refund. If you emptied a bag into a tub and can no longer tell whether it was the recalled lot, the advice is to throw it out rather than guess.

Then clean. Anything the berries touched should be washed and sanitised, which in practice means the freezer shelf, the container, the blender and the counter. Frozen fruit tends to be eaten without cooking, in smoothies or straight from the bag, so there is no heat step to make it safe.

Shops that received the berries and repackaged them for sale are told to stop selling them and to take them off the shelf.

Why frozen fruit keeps appearing in outbreaks

Freezing stops bacteria multiplying but does not kill them. A pathogen that reaches the fruit in the field or the packing house survives the freezer intact and is still there when the bag is opened months later. Because the shelf life is measured in years rather than days, a contaminated lot stays in circulation far longer than a salad or a soft cheese would, which is exactly the situation here: a July recall of a product best-by 2028.

That is also why the case count may keep moving. The live recall index carries the newest notices from all four federal agencies, and the food recalls tracker keeps the food ones in one place with the agency document behind each.

How to tell whether your bag is the one

On the Great Value blend the lot code is printed on the back of the bag, as 6040 01-6, with the best-by date of February 9, 2028 beside it. On the GreenWise products the recall now covers every lot, so the UPC alone settles it: 41415-06453 and 41415-12053 for whole blueberries in the two sizes, 41415-06753 and 41415-12153 for the mixed berries. Publix widened its own recall to all lots on July 29 rather than ask customers to read lot codes at all, which is the more cautious approach and the one that removes the guesswork.

If you shop at Walmart

The Great Value berries are the second Walmart own-brand product recalled in recent weeks; Marketside iceberg salad was pulled in July in a separate Cyclospora outbreak. The Walmart recalls page lists what has been recalled at the chain this year, from own-brand food to the products it sells for other manufacturers.