Dole Recalls More "Italian Blend" Bagged Salads Because Listeria Is Not Terribly Appetizing

If you bought some Dole Italian Blend bagged salad recently in any of the following states — Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia — you should probably take a look at this story to make sure you don’t have a salad that could possibly be contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes.

Dole announced the recall last night of 1,039 cases of the Italian Blend.

The specific product being recalled is the 10 oz. bag coded 0049N2202008, with a Use-By date of August 20 and UPC 7143000819. The product code and Use-By date are in the upper right-hand corner of the package; the UPC code is on the back of the package, below the barcode.

Dole says it knows of no illnesses have associated with the recalled salads.

“This recall notification is being issued due to an isolated instance in which a sample of Dole Italian Blend salad yielded a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test conducted by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture,” the company writes in a statement.

The company is also asking retailers to double-check their produce shelves to make sure that none of these bags are still available for sale, even though they are currently past the Use-by date.

If you have any of the recalled salads, Dole says to not eat it and to discard it immediately. Anyone with questions should call the Dole Food Company Consumer Response Center at (800) 356-3111, which is open 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (PT) Monday-Friday.

Italian Blend was one of the salads recalled by Dole last summer, also over possible listeria contamination.

In April, the company issued a recall of its Seven Lettuces bagged salad for possible salmonella contamination.

Back in 2010, our official food-testers at Consumer Reports checked out the cleanliness of bagged salads and found… well, yuck.

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