Black Pepper at Big Lots Stores Recalled Due to Salmonella

[MerryBlooms]

If you’ve purchased ground black pepper from a Big Lots store recently, you may want to think about tossing it in the trash.

According to Cleveland.com, a New Jersey-area spice company that supplies the national chain with black pepper recalled its product due to a possible salmonella contamination. While no illnesses have been reported yet, a random FDA sampling revealed traces of the salmonella bacteria, which can cause severe diarrhea, abdominal cramping, and fever.

The company, Gel Spice Co., is recalling as many as 16,000 cases of Fresh Finds-Ground Black Pepper, each in 3.53-ounce plastic containers, with "best by" dates ranging from 6/30/2017 – 7/23/17. The UPC code of the dangerous jars is 4 11010 98290 1.

For detailed information on the recall, check out the official press release on the FDA's website.


http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/big-lots-black-pepper-recall?src=spr_FBPAGE&spr_id=1443_89751991

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. How does salmonella live in black pepper?

or even get into pepper?

[MerryBlooms]

2. I know, right? Weird.

[hobbit709]

3. That's what I was thinking too.

[KurtNYC]

4. It isn't living on the pepper. It is the um....stuff that is mixed in with the pepper...

The agency’s testing between 2007 and 2010 revealed that 12 percent of imported spices were contaminated with insects, excrement, hair and other materials.

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/10/fda-releases-spice-risk-profile/#.VBwtu1c6yft

Could be from chickens in the fields.