A single lot of frozen organic blueberries from a Chilean grower has grown into a recall covering Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Publix shelves, after federal health officials confirmed 17 people got sick from E. coli.
Quick Take
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the outbreak sickened 17 people and hospitalized six in Florida and Georgia.
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) traced the bacteria, E. coli O145:H28, to frozen organic blueberries from a Chilean supplier.
- What started as one recalled lot in July grew to cover Publix, Walmart and Trader Joe’s frozen berry products by September.
- The FDA upgraded the recall to its highest-risk Class I warning in August, meaning exposure could cause serious illness or death.
How A Small Lot Recall Turned Into A Multistate Outbreak
The trouble started small. On July 3, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., a food processor in San Carlos, Chile, recalled one lot of frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries sold at Publix. It seemed routine. But the FDA and CDC were already tracking illnesses tied to E. coli O145:H28, and traceback work pointed straight back to that same Chilean supplier as the source of the contamination.
By July 29, Publix widened the recall on its own, pulling every lot of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries from stores in eight states. The company called it a precaution. Its notice told shoppers plainly not to eat the frozen fruit, and to return it for a full refund or simply throw it away. At that point, officials had linked the outbreak to a dozen illnesses.
Why The FDA Escalated This To Its Most Serious Recall Category
Weeks later, the situation got more serious. On August 18, the FDA reclassified the recall as Class I, its highest risk category, reserved for products where exposure carries a reasonable chance of causing severe health problems or death. By that point, health officials counted 12 illnesses and four hospitalizations tied to the tainted berries. The upgrade signaled that regulators saw this as more than a minor contamination scare.
Case counts kept climbing through late summer. The CDC and FDA eventually confirmed 17 total illnesses, with six people hospitalized across Florida and Georgia, according to the agency’s own outbreak data cited in national reporting. Frozen fruit carries bacteria differently than fresh produce because freezing can preserve pathogens for months, letting contaminated lots sit in home freezers long after the original purchase date.
Recall Grows To Include Walmart And Trader Joe’s Products
The recall took another turn on September 2, when Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. expanded its action to include a lot of Great Value-brand Frozen Organic Triple Berry Blend, the Walmart store brand. The company said no illnesses had been tied to that specific product yet. Regulators called it a precautionary step based on traceback information from the earlier Publix recall, not a sign of new confirmed sickness.
Trader Joe’s organic frozen berry blends were swept into the same expanded recall, putting three major retailers, Publix, Walmart and Trader Joe’s, under the same contamination warning tied to one overseas supplier. The affected fruit had reached 19 states combined once all the retailer-specific recalls were added together. For a product bought in bulk and frozen for months, that reach matters, since many households likely still had bags sitting untouched.
This pattern is not unusual for frozen food outbreaks. Recall timing often trails the actual spread of illness, since investigators need epidemiological and traceback evidence before acting, and that process takes time even when the eventual recall is broad and urgent. Multistate outbreaks like this one are also far more likely to end in a formal recall than illnesses confined to a single state, which explains why this case escalated across three national retailers instead of staying local. By early September, Food Safety News reported the outbreak had officially ended, though the affected products remained off shelves and under recall.
For anyone with GreenWise, Great Value or Trader Joe’s organic frozen berries in their freezer, the guidance has stayed consistent since July: do not eat it, check the lot numbers against the FDA’s recall notices, and return or discard the product for a refund. Simple steps, but worth taking seriously given how a single contaminated lot from one grower managed to touch three of America’s biggest grocery chains within two months.
Sources:
foxbusiness.com, fda.gov, cdc.gov, usatoday.com, nbcmiami.com, allrecipes.com, cbsnews.com
