Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Almark Foods, a hard-boiled egg processing plant and provider, recently released a voluntary recall of the company's pre-cooked and packaged hard-boiled and peeled eggs.
The eggs, according to an announcement published on the United States Food and Drug Administration, were potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The original recall was issued on Friday, Dec. 20 and included several companies which purchase and retail the eggs that are produced from Almark; these companies sold salads, egg whites or boiled eggs under their food service company name.
Several days later, on Monday, Dec. 23, Almark expanded their recall, including several larger retailers in their company's voluntary recall.
According to the December 23 recall, Almark was pulling their products from the shelves of several Walmart, Costco and Sam's Club stores across the nation.
The press release states that Members Mark (Sam's Club) Jack'd Protein Snack was produced with Almark's egg products, as well as several hard cooked/boiled egg packets that were sold at Walmart and Costco.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Almark is voluntarily expanding its recall to include all product packaged for the retail market manufactured at its Gainesville plant that remains within shelf life,” states Almark Foods in a press release.
While the company previously recalled several boiled/peeled egg products, Almark chose to expand their recall into other products that were created with Almark eggs – such as the Sam's Club protein packs.
In all, Almark has recalled over 80 different hard-boiled egg varities and products after discovering that the food items may be contaminated with Listeria.
All of the potentially-impacted foods were manufactured at Almark's Gainesville, Ga., facility.
The Almark recall states that the Listeria contamination was discovered after the FDA notified the company that a recent Listeria outbreak in 2019 had been linked to the company's egg items. The outbreak resulted in several reported illnesses and one reported death.
While investigating the outbreak, the FDA had tested samples from Almark's manufacturing facility and received a sample that was positive for Listeria, matching the strain that had been documented during the Listeria outbreak.
Anyone who may have recently purchased hard-boiled eggs or egg products from Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, Eggland's Best, Dairy Fresh, Nellie's Eggs or O Organics are asked to check their product to ensure they are not a part of this recall.
The affected products can be identified by viewing the printed “Best If Used By” date, which is located on the product package. If the “Best If Used By” code starts with the prefix “G,” the product was manufactured at the company’s Gainesville, Ga. facility and is subject to this recall. Products with the prefix “N” or “Y” are not subject to this recall. For Protein Kit products, consumers are advised to check the code on the actual egg package within the kit. All impacted hard-boiled eggs will have a best-by date of March 2, 2020.
Customers who have purchased these products are urged to immediately discard and not consume the products.