13 Of The Biggest Fruit And Vegetable Recalls That Haunted The US

Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been numerous large scale produce recalls, with many occurring due to the increasingly industrialized nature of food production. With commercialized agriculture and extensive international imports of fruits and vegetables, there's ample opportunity for production faults, or oversight with sanitation standards. The widespread distribution of raw foodstuffs today also means that contaminated produce can have sweeping health ramifications for unsuspecting consumers. E. coli, salmonella, and listeria are common bacteria that can easily make their way into everyday produce, and throughout US history these contaminants, among others, have sparked many nationwide recalls in an attempt to minimize effects on public health.

Inherently linked to serious health concerns, some of these recalls have led to important milestones in American agriculture, serving as the catalyst for heightened standards — many have directly led to improved production and sanitation protocols. Here are 13 of the biggest fruit and vegetable recalls that have haunted the US, and how they have left their legacy on American food safety.

Botulism, caused by the deadly toxin Clostridium botulinum, was an occasional killer throughout the early 20th century. While a more common risk with homemade olives and canned goods, it occurred on a wider scale with the rise of industrial canning companies. A bacteria that thrives in environments without oxygen, botulism is ideally suited to the conditions of canned food and can easily taint a batch of vacuum-sealed goods that hasn't been prepared in ideal conditions.

A lethal outbreak of botulism dating back to 1919 made national headlines. First occurring at an Ohio dinner banquet, 17 people present were poisoned from a jar of ripe olives — seven of them died. The source of the toxin was traced to a cannery in California, the Ehmann Olive Company, whose products also led to botulism cases scattered across other states. While there was not an official recall on raw olives to the extent we have today, the publicity was enough to deter consumers from olive consumption. This prompted the canning industry to research prevention methods that might save the olive business, leading to the formation of a Botulism Commission, which worked towards developing safer production protocols. Findings led to a standardization of the duration and temperature for olive processing — a minimum of 40 minutes at 240 degrees F. In the following years, these measures gradually applied to more canned goods, marking the beginning of national food safety regulation.

In early November of 1959, the Food and Drug Administration suggested a recall on all cranberry products coming from the states of Oregon and Washington grown between 1958 and 1959. This occurred during peak cranberry buying and consuming season in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, the unfortunate timing justified by the belief that harvests from the Pacific Northwest contained traces of aminotriazole, a potentially cancerous weed killer. While cranberry producers complained that trace amounts of the herbicide wouldn't be harmful, the FDA was operating under more stringent protocols surrounding harmful pesticides. The year before this cranberry scare, a new clause added to the Food Additives Amendment proclaimed, "That no additive shall be deemed to be safe if it is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal." Aminotriazole had been found to cause tumors in lab rats.

Exercising an abundance of caution, the Secretary of Health urged American consumers to abstain from purchasing or eating cranberries if their exact origin remained uncertain. Consequently, the sales of both fresh and canned cranberries plummeted, leaving out an essential ingredient on many Thanksgiving dinner tables in 1959. In solidarity, President Eisenhower did not consume cranberries with his Thanksgiving meal either. The White House served applesauce instead, one of the more common Thanksgiving cranberry sauce alternatives. Though this herbicide recall was a midcentury crisis at the time, the clause that prompted such strict prevention of potentially carcinogenic pesticides was removed in 1996.

When the Ohio-based United Canning Corporation discovered botulism in some of its canned mushrooms, what followed was one of the largest food recalls of its time. The risk of potentially poisonous mushrooms instigated an FDA order that affected a wide variety of food products. Stouffer's Food Company alone recalled 14,000 cases of frozen food containing potentially poisoned mushrooms, including frozen cream of mushroom soup and tuna noodle casserole. A local Michigan-based Pappa Fabrini's Frozen Pizzas held a funeral for the 30,000 frozen mushroom pizzas that were deemed unfit for consumption. Later that year, more recalls on more mushroom-containing pre-prepared foods followed. Due to this 1973 botulism scare, a total of 73 million cans of mushrooms were withheld from consumers.

In response to this botulism crisis and subsequent recall, the Centers for Disease Control, which had started recording deaths from foodborne illness in 1973, created the National Botulism Surveillance System the same year. This innovation was designed to collect data on botulism cases across the country. Additionally, 1973 also marked the beginning of more strict regulations involving processing of canned foods, another step towards improved national food safety.

A statewide recall on watermelon occurred in California in 1985, after a chain of illnesses surrounding July 4th celebrations. Among the shared symptoms were nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal pain, and excessive sweating. These sudden onsets proved to be reactions to pesticide poisoning, which was traced to an insecticide, Aldicarb, that was detected in watermelons. About 1,350 cases of sickness were reported in the months following the recall, some of which included more than one person affected, making the actual total of illnesses higher than the numbers suggest. The spike in cases was likely linked to the time of year, as Independence Day in the United States is also the apex of watermelon season — the fruit, for many, is an essential food for celebrating the national holiday.

Aldicarb is not authorized for use on watermelons due to the permeability of their rinds. Whether it was accidentally or illegally used on crops of watermelons in the summer of 1985 remains unknown. Since it was too difficult to distinguish which melons had been contaminated and which had not, the California Department of Health Services ordered an embargo on all watermelon sales across the state, opting to destroy all the fruit to prevent the spread of further illness.

Cantaloupes from the southwest proved to be the cause of a salmonella outbreak that affected mostly the Northeast and Midwest in the summer of 1991. There were 400 illnesses reported across 23 states and Canada, though it is likely that many more went unrecorded. The extent of illnesses prompted widespread recalls on cantaloupe across numerous states.

These salmonella infections were largely traced to pre-cut melon served in fruit salads and at grocery salad bars. Cantaloupe's webbed rind makes it particularly susceptible to trapping bacteria. If a rind is contaminated, cutting into it without washing the melon can spread the bacteria to the fruit within, a heightened risk with pre-sliced cantaloupe that only continues to spread if the fruit remains unrefrigerated. This problem of sanitation gets magnified exponentially on an industrial scale, making sliced cantaloupe one type of grocery produce more likely to make you sick. As the CDC reported shortly after the salmonella outbreak of 1991, the FDA advised that melons be thoroughly washed before they are cut. This advice is general good practice when preparing cantaloupes, so as to minimize the spread of any kind of bacteria. 

In 1996, a widespread outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the Cyclospora parasite, occurred. This seemed highly unusual, as prior to 1996, most recorded cases of this infection were associated with travelers who had contracted a parasite while overseas. Prompting an investigation, 1,465 reported cases of cyclosporiasis across the US and in parts of Canada were traced to the consumption of contaminated fruit. Initially, California strawberries were falsely accused of being ground zero, but further inquiry proved that the true source was raspberries imported from Guatemala, which had been consumed so quickly there wasn't any evidence left to test, let alone recall.

Studies later conducted on Guatemalan farms confirmed that contaminated water was likely the source of the parasite, which affected raspberry bushes and consequently berry consumers. After the Guatemalan Grower's Association's initial measures to mitigate risks of infection failed, Guatemala withheld its raspberry exports to the US in 1997. The country continued to do so for two years, resuming only in 1999 once enhanced protocols improved growing conditions and eliminated the endemic Cyclospora parasite. This incident severely damaged the Guatemalan raspberry industry and suggested a need for increased diligence in producing and processing fresh produce. To better avoid contamination of any kind, consumers can take extra sanitation steps with a proper way to wash raspberries that more effectively removes bacteria and other impurities from this particularly susceptible fruit.

Another nationwide recall swept through grocery stores in 2006, due to the presence of E. coli in spinach causing an outbreak of health reactions across the country. Often consumed raw, spinach is among the foods most likely to carry E. coli, since the lack of heat during preparation limits opportunity to kill any bacteria before consumption. According to the USDA, the upsurge in infections in 2006 impacted 26 states, with 204 reported illnesses, 104 hospitalizations, 31 serious medical complications, and three deaths. Though the precise means of contamination remains unknown, investigation into this source of infected spinach suggested that the bacteria likely came from animal feces –  the tainted greens were traced to a ranch with waterways that ran between adjacent spinach and cattle fields.

In response to the outpouring of serious reactions, the FDA initiated a very comprehensive recall. Grocery stores were advised to remove all bagged spinach from their shelves, which consisted of 30 different brands. Soon after this initial decree, the FDA advised that all loose fresh spinach be withheld from consumers too. The USDA reported that this was the most extensive recall the FDA had ever made for American-grown produce, and for several days all grocery stores and restaurants had completely removed spinach from public access. 

In 2011, there was the deadliest outbreak connected to contaminated food since 1924. The produce responsible were whole cantaloupes infected with listeria bacteria, a microbe less common in produce than salmonella, but also much more serious. The FDA reports that those infected by listeria, even when given antibiotic treatment, still face an average mortality rate of 20 to 30 percent. The 2011 cantaloupe crisis led to 147 reported illnesses, 33 deaths, and one miscarriage.

The origin of these cantaloupes was soon revealed to be one particular producer, Jensen Farms in Colorado. Federal investigation into the matter revealed that Jensen farms had employed lax sanitation standards, sending off melons that had not been properly disinfected after harvest from the field and requiring the grower to recall 300,000 cases of fresh cantaloupe. Various processors of pre-sliced cantaloupes also had to recall their products containing fruit originating from Jensen Farms — Carol's Cuts LLC from Kansas recalled nearly 600 pounds, and Fruit Fresh Up Inc. in New York recalled 4,800 packages of fruit. After the recall, the Jensen brothers, who ran the farming operation, eventually faced criminal charges for knowingly putting their consumers at risk, reiterating and reevaluating food processors and distributors' responsibility to public health.

Between 2014 and 2015, a sweet, sticky treat became alarmingly deadly when prepackaged caramel apples were also found to be contaminated with listeria bacteria. Though not a food that is commonly associated with listeria outbreaks, the fruit used to make the caramel apples was likely exposed to the bacteria during processing, which is a common means of spreading contamination. This particular outbreak occurred across 12 states with 35 illnesses reported, 34 of which turned into hospitalizations, and seven of them deaths.

Caramel apples being the common denominator in these illnesses, their manufacturers were soon under scrutiny. The source of the outbreak was eventually traced to a California apple grower, Bidart Bros., which had apples that tested positive for listeria. As a result, Bidart Bros recalled all the Gala and Granny Smith apples processed in its facility from 2014. Afterwards, the apple grower contacted three caramel apple manufacturers that were in possession of potentially contaminated apples, resulting in all three recalling their products as well.

Another listeria outbreak in 2016 took a variety of frozen produce off grocery shelves. Nine reported listeria infections, which all resulted in hospitalizations and three of them deaths, were connected to contaminated frozen vegetables. Hardier than other bacteria, listeria is not something refrigeration can kill. Not only can it survive in the freezer, but it can continue to multiply at a temperature of 24 degrees F.

This outbreak and subsequent recall occurred gradually, prompted by new tracking technology that allowed the CDC to more effectively pinpoint and connect listeria outbreaks, even if they happened over a long stretch of time. The most likely source of this contamination was suspected to be CRF Frozen Foods, and the manufacturer recalled all its frozen produce processed at their Patapsco, Washington, facility. With a variety of vegetables at risk, and due to the long shelf-life of frozen foods, what resulted was a continual recall of 42 brands and over 350 products nationwide. This later expanded to include an additional 100 food products that contained frozen vegetables and were part of the initial incident. 

Between 2017 and 2018, romaine lettuce faced three separate recalls due to three different E. coli outbreaks, all traced to separate farms. An initial recall at the end of 2017 was soon followed by another in the spring of 2018, the latter being a reaction to the 210 reported illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and 5 deaths linked to E. coli infections. In the fall of that same year, a third outbreak occurred, keeping romaine off many grocery lists.

Leafy greens, typically consumed raw, are a more common source of E. coli infection than other vegetables, since they are not prepared with heat that might kill any lingering bacteria. While investigations couldn't pinpoint the exact source of these bacterial outbreaks, the origin likely could have been a reservoir used to irrigate romaine lettuce, easily exposed to contaminants in the open air and therefore less sanitary than groundwater. The strain of E. coli that made many people sick was a particularly dangerous one known to exist in animal feces, suggesting that animal waste in some way contaminated irrigation for the lettuce in 2018. Since romaine doesn't have a long shelf life, there was unlikely to be much of lettuce left in stores by the time recalls were initiated. But with numerous E. coli outbreaks affecting romaine throughout the year, consumers remained understandably hesitant about purchasing leafy greens.

Yet another cantaloupe recall occurred in 2023, this time paired with a particularly wide-reaching salmonella outbreak. The FDA noted that the affected cantaloupes led to 407 reported illnesses across 44 states, which resulted in 158 hospitalizations and six deaths. Following through with the recall, hundreds of grocery stores and restaurants removed cantaloupe from their produce aisles and menus. 

This salmonella outbreak seemed to be present in cubed and pre-sliced cantaloupe. Kwik trip, Kroger, Sprouts Farmers' Market, Trader Joes, and ALDI were among the major grocers that recalled pre-prepared cantaloupe, as well as packaged fruit salads that contained cantaloupe cubes. The northeastern grocery chain Stop and Shop alone recalled cantaloupes from 183 stores. Consumers were advised not to consume sliced cantaloupe of any kind unless they were certain it didn't come from certain growers. After federal investigation, the brands Malchita and Rudy, imported from Mexico, were pinpointed as the cantaloupes responsible for the contamination.

An investigation into recently contaminated carrots remains ongoing as cases of infection continue, following an initial E. coli outbreak in November of 2024. In the month of November alone, the CDC recorded 39 reported cases across 18 states, among them 15 hospitalizations and one death. Grimmway Farms, based in Bakersfield, California, one of the world's largest carrot producers, was identified as the likely source of the bacteria. The manufacturer voluntarily recalled numerous brands in mid-November, and contacted distributors to do the same.

The recall extends to over 30 brands of bagged organic and baby carrots, which are packaged in sizes that range from 1- to 50-pound bags. The recall has also expanded to include food products, including prepared foods and vegetable mixes, that might also have used contaminated carrots. While all potentially at risk carrots are believed to have been removed from grocery stores, consumers are warned that they may still have these products in their own refrigerators, and if so, to abstain from consuming.