Beans, blackeyed peas, and asparagus are among the vegetables canned under various labels by the New Era Canning Company, whicch is based in Michigan. Oh, and they just may include some very deadly botulism in each can.
New Era’s recall has expanded and expanded again and again since this all began. It now stretches back to include all its product back five years. Its sufficiently complicated that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) sponsors a website to keep track of it all.
FDA’s New Era website can be found here. If you buy your veggies in large cans, you better be checking the site and the long, long list of what’s on the recall.
For as much as this has to be costing New Era, so far the company has been very, very lucky as there have been no reports of anyone getting sick from its botulism-tainted cans. FDA says:
C. botulinum produces the toxin that causes botulism and can cause life-threatening illness or death. The affected New Era products are large institutional-sized cans, weighing between six and seven pounds, of various types of beans, blackeye peas, and asparagus.
To date, no illnesses have been reported to the FDA. However, consumers should not consume these products, even if they appear to be normal, because of the potential serious risk to health. Consumers who have the affected products, or who have used them in recipes, should immediately throw the cans and food away.
The potentially contaminated products are marketed under ten different brand names:
- Classic Sysco
- Code
- Frosty Acres Restaurant’s Pride Preferred
- GFS
- Kitchen Essentials
- Monarch Heritage
- Necco
- New Era
- Nugget
- Reliance Sysco
Processors other than New Era may be packing these brands. Only products packed by New Era are subject to the recall, so individuals must check the lot numbers on the bottom of the cans to determine if the product is affected by the recall.
Like we said, you better check the website.