This past summer, consumers were confronted with a series of recalls of peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots and other stone fruits potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The fruit, sourced from Wawona Packing Co., was recalled from major retailers such as ALDI, Trader Joe’s, Costco, Kroger and Walmart. Many consumers began expressing concerns that they had been infected, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an enormous surge in traffic to its website from people looking up information on Listeria infection.
Now CDC has revealed that at least a handful of Listeria infections from the summer of 2014 were likely caused by the recalled fruit, according to a new report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The fruit was recalled in mid-July 2014. Within a month, CDC had found four human cases of listeriosis, in four different states, with infections with DNA similar to that found on the recalled fruit. Further testing with whole genome sequencing technology revealed that two of the four cases matched isolates from the fruit almost identically. The four patients were from Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois and South Carolina, with the infections in the patients from Massachusetts and Minnesota having the most clear resemblance to Listeria from the fruits. The Massachusetts patient reported eating nectarines and peaches purchased from a store that sold the recalled fruit, with receipts and purchasing data to prove it. The Minnesota patient, however, only had purchase records for peaches purchased after the recalled fruit had reportedly been removed from the store. The South Carolina patient apparently did not eat any stone fruits prior to falling ill, while the patient in Illinois could not be reached. Investigators concluded that the Massachusetts case was most likely connected to consuming the stone fruit, though the illness onset date suggests any consumed contaminated fruit was not included in the recall. This is the first reported link between listeriosis and stone fruit, according to CDC. “Although exposure to this recalled product was likely widespread, disease was very rare,” the report stated. “Therefore, this recall and associated illness does not provide sufficient evidence to recommend that persons at higher risk for listeriosis (e.g., pregnant women, persons aged ≥65 years, and immunocompromised persons) avoid fresh stone fruits. ” “However,” investigators concluded, “it does support the need to understand risks associated with contaminated, ready-to-eat fresh fruit so that prevention strategies can be strengthened.”
