WASHINGTON – Salinas, California-based Taylor Farms, a leading producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, launched a recall of approximately 6,630 lbs. of chicken and pork salad products on concerns the items may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reported.

The salad products contain cheese that is subject to a recall by Sargento Foods, Inc., FSIS said. Sargento, which supplies Bevel Shred Pepperjack cheese products to Taylor Farms processing facilities in Dallas, Texas, and Tracy, California, recently recalled a variety of cheese products on concerns of Lm contamination. Sargento implemented the recall out of an abundance of caution when Deutsch Kas Haus LLC, Middlebury, Indiana, notified the company that routine testing revealed the presence of Lm in a specialty Longhorn Colby cheese it supplied to Sargento.

The facilities produced and packaged the products from Feb. 6-9, FSIS said. The affected products include:

• 10.5-oz. plastic trays of “Signature Cafe Southwest Chicken Premade Salad” with the following “USE BY” dates: “2/13/17, 2/14/17 or 2/15/17."
• 10.5-oz. plastic trays of “Signature Café Southwest Style Salad with Chicken” with the following “USE BY” dates: “2/14/17, 2/15/17 or 2/16/17.”
• 10.5-oz. plastic trays of “H-E-B Shake Rattle & Bowl Rowdy Ranch Hand (contains pork)” with the following “USE BY” dates: “2/17/17, 2/18/17 or 2/19/17.”

The affected products bear either establishment number M/P-34013 or M/P-34733 inside the USDA mark of inspection. The salad items were shipped to distribution centers in Los Angeles and Tracy; Portland, Oregon; and Houston, Roanoke and San Antonio, Texas.

Public health agencies urged consumers who purchased the products not to consume them. The salads should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

Symptoms of Listeriosis include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms, FSIS said. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn.