News of yet another E. coli outbreak has shocked shoppers 10 days before Thanksgiving. More than a dozen brands of organic carrots are now being recalled with warnings to consumers not to eat them. One person is known to have gotten sick in Colorado, but the recalled products are all produced by Grimmway Farms and sold under different brand names.

They were shipped directly to distribution centers across the country in the United States. There have been a total of 39 cases nationwide in 18 states with one death.

“I mean, it’s part of a bigger problem, right? When you deregulate industries, when you don’t make food safety a priority,” one customer said Monday night in Denver.

The illness usually starts three to four days after ingesting the bacteria, but it can take up to ten days before you feel sick. The symptoms of E.coli poisoning include stomach cramps, diarrhea, excessive vomiting, and fever over 102 degrees. The carrots may be linked to an outbreak of E. coli O121:H19, a different strain than the variant recently linked to onions in McDonald’s products, that sickened 104 people and killed one . who lived in western Colorado.

“E. coli only comes from one place, and that’s understandably human and animal feces. And where is that found? It’s found on the ground. It’s found in the fields where these vegetables are grown,” says Ron Simon, a lawyer who specializes. in the field of food safety.

Simon represents 61 people in the outbreak linked to McDonald’s.

“What should have happened was that both the onions and the carrots in this case should have undergone a sanitary procedure, where they wash the vegetables and put them in a chlorine bath, and sometimes they irradiate them to kill all the bad plants.” bacteria and once that’s done, they need to test to see if those procedures got all the bacteria.

It ensures that almost all cases do not reach consumers, but if there are gaps or failures, contamination can end up on products in stores.

A CBS News analysis found that foodborne illnesses have increased 42% since 2013 in regions monitored by the CDC.

“They are becoming more common as the food supply chain becomes more consolidated. Where we have fewer and fewer growers or processors,” said Abigail Horn, a professor who studies food systems data for safety and health applications at New York University. Southern California.

“I mean, these things are only going to get worse,” the Denver retailer worried.

From the CDC:
Whole organic carrots
• Were available in stores from approximately 8/14/2024 to 10/23/2024
• There is no expiration date on the bags of organic whole carrots.
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Marketside, Nature’s Promise, O-Organic, President’s Choice, Simple Truth, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Wholesome Pantry
Baby organic carrots
• Best before dates ranging from 9/11/2024 to 11/12/2024
• Brands: 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Compliments, Full Circle, Good & Gather, GreenWise, Grimmway Farms, Marketside, Nature’s Promise, O-Organic, President’s Choice, Raley’s, Simple Truth, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Healthy pantry