RICHMOND, Va. — Health officials are urging you to inspect your refrigerators and freezer for potentially contaminated carrots after an E. coli outbreak has been linked to organic whole and baby carrots from a California farm.
Barbara Kowalcyk, Director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, emphasized the importance of discarding any carrots that may be part of the recall.
"This is a very deadly pathogen. There are already 15 hospitalizations and one death," Kowalcyk warned, urging Americans to take immediate action, as the contaminated carrots were sold under various brand names and distributed at multiple retailers across the U.S.
Scripps News Life
Organic carrots recalled from multiple stores after a deadly E. coli outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the affected carrots are no longer sold in stores, but Kowalcyk said the carrots could still be in people’s homes.
"Please check your refrigerators and freezers and if you're not sure, throw it out," said Kowalcyk.
The recall is part of a series of recent food safety incidents, including a separate E. coli outbreak tied to onions used in McDonald’s quarter pounders and a Listeria outbreak linked to Boar's Head deli meats made at a plant in Jarratt, Va.
Kowalcyk’s work in food safety has been personal.
In 2001, her 2.5-year-old son, Kevin, died after contracting E. coli from suspected contaminated ground meat.
"He went from being perfectly healthy to dead in 12 days," Kowalcyk said. "After he died, my friends and I realized that we knew more about car seat safety than we knew about food safety. And I figured if I didn't know a lot of these things, there were lots of other moms and dads that didn't."
This tragedy led Kowalcyk to found a nonprofit focused on food safety, eventually leading her to her current role.
"My vision is for food systems that consistently and equitably deliver safe, nutritious, and affordable food to all," she said, emphasizing that no one should die from the food they eat. "Food is a basic human right and everybody should be able to be nourished to help in a way that helps them maintain their health and well being."
Despite the rising number of recalls, Kowalcyk does not believe foodborne illness outbreaks are increasing, but rather that detection has improved.
"When you start looking for it, you are going to find it," she explained, noting that enhanced clinical testing and better reporting practices have made outbreaks easier to detect.
She highlighted a 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach as a key moment that drew greater attention to produce safety.
"I don't think that fresh produce has gotten any less safe than it was 10 or 20 years ago. But 10 or 20 years ago, we weren't looking at it as as a potential vehicle as much as we are today."
However, Kowalcyk also warned that many foodborne illnesses go unreported.
She said the CDC estimates that 48 million Americans fall ill annually from foodborne diseases, with only a small fraction of those reported are linked to specific outbreaks.
She cautioned that while the U.S. is often praised for having the safest food system in the world, that does not mean it is safe.
"I always just like to remind people that that all of our food comes from the ground or it comes from animals, so there is some level of risk, right?," she said. "Ultimately, those carrots were grown in the ground, in a field. There's probably wildlife, either flying overhead or walking through that field, that could have — sounds kind of gross — but, pooped in the field. It goes down into the soil, it contaminates the carrot."
Kowalcyk added a robust, whole-system approach is needed to keep dangerous food out of stores and off tables and that responsibility starts with the producers themselves. She said while agencies are tasked with oversight, she is concerned potential state and local budget cuts could harm their role in that system.
"They're already stretched pretty thin. If we take away additional resources, are we going to see outbreaks and recalls go away, which may not be because the food is safer. It may be because we just don't have the resources to to detect them," Kowalcyk said.
The final barrier, she said, are the consumers themselves and offered several steps that people can take to help keep themselves and their families healthy.
"They can follow the safe food handling practices...clean surfaces, clean utensils, use separate utensils. Keep uncooked raw foods separate — like raw eggs, raw meat and poultry separate from ready to eat foods like carrots," she said. "Cooking is the best kill-step for any of this. Cooking does kill most pathogens."
Kowalcyk also said to not leave food out at room temperature for long as it is the condition that bacteria thrives in.
But the fifth one that the World Health Organization recommends is use safe water and raw materials. That means, understand the risks that are out there and then understand your vulnerability to that risk," said Kowalcyk. "Children, particularly those under the age of five, pregnant women, senior citizens, people over the age of 65 and anyone with a compromised immune system are at highest risk of developing serious foodborne illness. And so, they might want to take a different approach to what they're eating and thinking about the risky foods."
"Right now, leafy greens is one of the riskiest foods out there, that and sprouts...And if I were somebody that had a compromised immune system, that's not something that I would necessarily choose to eat. But again, that determination needs to be made by each individual based on their comfort level with risk and their own immune status."
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