CLEVELAND — With the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing a recall on whole cucumbers coming from Florida, we’re VERIFYing what you need to know about the bigger picture.
The 14 states affected are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY what you need to know, we checked with:
- The FDA, and
- Fresh Start Produce Sales Food and Safety Coordinator Cameron White
CLAIM 1
First, people want to know if this cucumber recall is part of a larger Salmonella outbreak around the country.
THE EXPLANATION
Right now, the FDA has two active Salmonella investigations in progress, 1 with 141 reported cases of Salmonella tied to it.
The FDA’s announcement of the cucumber recall says this:
“The FDA is conducting whole genome sequencing to determine if this sample is related to an ongoing Salmonella outbreak investigation.”
This means they’re still testing the tainted cucumbers to find out where the Salmonella came from, in this cucumber recall case.
THE ANSWER
Until that testing is complete, we can’t VERIFY yet whether this Salmonella issue is related to either ongoing Salmonella outbreak.
CLAIM 2
Second, we’re looking at how tainted cucumbers ended up in Ohio.
THE EXPLANATION
The cucumbers came from Fresh Start Produce Sales in Delray, Florida, and were shipped out from there.
The company’s Food and Safety Coordinator Cameron White told us, “Fresh Start Produce Sales doesn’t have any direct customers in Ohio. The company ships produce to distribution centers.”
White also said the distribution centers they work with ship to multiple states, so that’s how the cucumbers ended up in Ohio.
THE ANSWER
We can VERIFY that tainted cucumbers were not shipped directly to Ohio from Florida.
CLAIM 3
Last, we looked into whether this was a voluntary or mandatory recall.
THE EXPLANATION
We checked with FDA on this, and learned that mandatory recalls only happen when the food in question "could cause serious illnesses or death."
Mandatory recalls are actually extremely rare. The FDA has only issued a mandatory recall once. It was related to Salmonella, but it was back in April 2018.
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that, no, this cucumber recall was not mandatory, it was voluntary.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you’re worried about cucumbers you have at home now, you should know that a cucumber has shelf life of 10-14 days, so it’s very unlikely these cucumbers are still out there, now.