Publix is recalling all lots of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries because the fruit may be contaminated with E. coli O145:H28. The recall covers both the 10-ounce and 48-ounce bags — UPC 41415-06453 and 41415-12053 for the blueberries, 41415-06753 and 41415-12153 for the mixed berries — sold at Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Do not eat them. Throw them out or take them back for a refund. Publix Customer Care is at (800) 242-1227.
This is the second recall of this product, and the first one was too small. On July 1, the Florida Department of Health told CDC it was chasing a cluster of E. coli O145 infections. Interviews pointed at frozen GreenWise blueberries from Publix, and Publix stopped selling them internally. On July 3, the Chilean supplier, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, recalled exactly one lot — code 60401, best by February 9, 2028. It took until July 29, four weeks later, for traceback and epidemiology to push the recall out to every lot and to a second product entirely.
Read the Publix announcement and you would not know anyone had been hospitalized. It describes what E. coli O145 “can cause” in the abstract, says the company is acting out of an abundance of caution, and sends you to a CDC link if you want to know more. Twelve confirmed infections, four hospitalizations, and a first illness onset of May 11 all live on the other side of that hyperlink. That is a choice. A recall notice is the one document that reliably reaches the person standing in front of the freezer, and burying the reason people got sick behind a URL is how a bag of berries stays in that freezer until 2028.
CDC counts twelve confirmed cases in two states, eleven in Florida and one in Georgia, with four hospitalizations. Illness onsets ran from May 11 to June 5. Seven of the nine people interviewed reported eating frozen blueberries, and five named GreenWise from Publix specifically. That is a tight, convincing epi signal, and it was sitting there in early July. It is also a number that has not moved since July 6 — CDC updated its pages this week to acknowledge the expanded recall without adding a single case, which tells you the case-finding has stalled, not that the outbreak has.
Twelve is the number of people who got sick enough to see a doctor, who got a stool culture, and whose isolate got sequenced and uploaded. For non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, CDC’s own underdiagnosis work puts the real community burden at something north of a hundred illnesses for every laboratory-confirmed one. The confirmed count is the tip of the thermometer, not the fever.
Two things make this recall worse than the usual produce recall. First, freezing does not kill E. coli O145 — it preserves it. A bag with a best-by date of February 2028 is a bag that will still be in somebody’s freezer at Christmas, long after the news cycle has moved on. Second, the mixed berries. Once contaminated blueberries go into a blend, the traceback stops being about one bag and starts being about wherever else that fruit went. FDA has already said the product may have reached retailers beyond Publix and that more products may be added.
O145 is not a mild bug. It causes bloody diarrhea, and in children and the elderly it causes hemolytic uremic syndrome — kidney failure, dialysis, sometimes a lifetime of consequences. Antibiotics make it worse. There is no treatment except supportive care and hope.
If you ate GreenWise organic frozen blueberries or mixed berries and got sick with cramping and bloody diarrhea, see a doctor and ask for a stool culture. That test is the only thing that turns you from an anonymous stomach bug into a case that counts.