According to Fox News Denver, at least four people in a Colorado family have come down with Salmonella after a nationwide recall of pistachios. On Friday, four people in one Colorado family tested positive.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had food poisoning, but it’s painful and this was about 10 times worse,” Mike Larsen said.
Larsen ended up in the hospital where doctors confirmed he had the foodborne bacteria. Larsen, his girlfriend and his parents got sick after sharing a bag of Wonderful pistachios his parents bought at Walgreens in Arvada about a month ago.
Last week the CDC announced that it was collaborating with public health officials in multiple states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo infections.
At the time a total of 11 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Montevideo have been reported from 9 states. States reporting illnesses are: Alabama 1, Arizona 2, Connecticut 1, Georgia 1, Michigan 1, Minnesota 1, North Dakota 1, Virginia 1, Washington 2.
Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory officials indicate that pistachios produced by Wonderful Pistachios of Lost Hills, California are a likely source of this outbreak.
Recent laboratory testing isolated the outbreak strain of Salmonella Montevideo from samples of raw pistachios collected from Paramount Farms, where Wonderful pistachios are grown.
On March 9, 2016, Wonderful Pistachios voluntarily recalled a limited number of flavors and sizes of in-shell and shelled pistachios because they may be contaminated with Salmonella. The pistachios were sold under the brand names Wonderful, Paramount Farms, and Trader Joe’s and were sold nationwide and in Canada.
According to a CDC report in 2004, Paramount Farms was linked to a previous Salmonella outbreak tied to raw almonds that sickened at least 29. On May 12, 2004, the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory identified a cluster of five patients infected with Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis. The five patients were from four Oregon counties; their onsets of illness occurred during February-April 2004. A subsequent investigation identified a total of 29 patients in 12 states and Canada since at least September 2003. Seven patients were hospitalized.
On May 18, 2004 Paramount announced a recall of all raw almonds sold under the Kirkland Signature, Trader Joe’s, and Sunkist labels. Costco mailed 1,107,552 letters to members known to have purchased the recalled product in the United States. The recall was expanded on May 22, 2004 to include nuts sold in bulk to approximately 50 other commercial customers, some of whom repackaged almonds for sale under other brand names. In addition to sales in the United States, almonds were exported to France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom. 13,000,000 pounds of almonds were recalled.