It’s Time to Toss Those Carrots

Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Gado via Getty Images

If you optimistically bought a bag of Trader Joe’s baby carrots recently, thinking that you’d eat them all before forgetting them in your fridge, it’s time to throw them away. Not because they’re probably disgustingly wet by now (which is also true), but because they might be linked to an E. coli outbreak.

Grimmway Farms has recalled some of its organic carrots, which were being sold at grocery-store chains including Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Target. The recall affects both baby carrots and whole carrots. According to the CDC, there have been 39 reported E. coli cases so far across 18 states with 15 hospitalizations and one death. The CDC also has information about the brands of carrots affected, as well as the best-if-used-by dates of the contaminated carrots.

E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, severe stomach cramps, and vomiting and is especially dangerous for children under 5 years old and the elderly. In severe cases, it can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can result in kidney failure and, in the worst cases, death.

This is the second major E. coli–related recall in as many months. In October, an outbreak of the bacteria was traced back to slivered onions on the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with more than 100 people getting sick. Hmmm, this all seems pretty bad. The only way things could probably get worse were if an unhinged conspiracy theorist were about to take the reins at Health and Human Services.

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