Urgent recall of contaminated carrots after E coli outbreak leaves one dead and 39 ill

Grimmway Farms says the affected carrots will have mostly been sold already (Picture: Getty)

Organic carrots sold all over the US have been recalled after being linked to a deadly E coli outbreak.

A total of 39 infections across 18 states have been reported to the federal public health agency, including one death and 15 hospitalisation.

The carrots are grown by California-based Grimmway Farms, who warned certain products may have been contaminated with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC).

This strain of E coli commonly causes bloody diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever and generally lasts two weeks before resolving itself.

In some cases it can develop into a serious and sometimes fatal kidney disease, mainly in children, but also in elderly or vulnerable adults.

The recall covers bagged carrots sold at major supermarkets including Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Target.

Grimmway Farms said that the at-risk carrots ‘should no longer be in grocery stores but may be in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers’.

The carrots were sold as far as Canada and Puerto Rico (Picture: Getty)

These include organic whole carrots which were available for purchase at retail stores from 14 August through 23 October 2024, as well as organic baby carrots with best-if-used-by dates between 11 September and 12 November 2024.

It comes amid an existing E coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s food which has been detected in 14 states.

At least 34 people have been hospitalised and scores more infected, with investigators blaming onions served on the chain’s Quater Pounder burgers.

McDonald’s says it is investing $65 million into ‘supporting franchisees who have lost business, targeting those in the states that were most affected’.

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