Walmart Recall Widens as Chilean Berry E. Coli Outbreak Reaches 17 Cases

The Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 3 published notice that a Chilean produce exporter has widened a recall of frozen organic berries to include a Walmart store-brand blend, after federal investigators traced a monthslong outbreak of E. coli illness to the company's supply chain. The expansion pulls one lot of Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend from store shelves in 16 states, two months after the same supplier's frozen blueberries were linked to sickness in Florida and Georgia.

The exporter, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile, said the 10-ounce Great Value blend, which contains strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, may carry Escherichia coli O145:H28, a Shiga toxin-producing strain capable of causing severe illness. The FDA has classified the action as a Class I recall, its most serious designation, reserved for products where there is a reasonable probability that exposure will cause serious health consequences or death, according to the agency's own recall classification guidance.

The numbers

The recalled Great Value package carries UPC 7874211226, lot code 6040 01-6 and a "best if used by" date of Feb. 9, 2028, printed on the front of the bag. It was distributed to select Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, the company said in its recall notice.

No illnesses have been tied specifically to the Great Value product; the FDA and the company describe the expansion as a precautionary step based on traceback records connecting the lot to the same processing operation implicated in the broader outbreak. That underlying outbreak, which the agency is still investigating, has sickened 17 people and hospitalized six, all in Florida and Georgia, with no deaths reported, according to the FDA's outbreak investigation page.

How we got here

The outbreak dates to the spring. According to the FDA's timeline, the earliest illness in the cluster began May 11, and the last known case in that initial group fell ill June 5. The Florida Department of Health notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of a cluster of E. coli cases on July 1, and two days later Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur issued its first recall, covering frozen organic IQF blueberries sold under the Publix GreenWise brand.

That recall grew on July 29, when Publix expanded it to cover all lots of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries, in 10-ounce and 48-ounce packages. The Sept. 2 expansion to Walmart's Great Value line, announced by the FDA a day later, marks the third stage of the recall and the first to reach a second major retailer. The FDA has since conducted what it describes as a remote assessment of the Chilean processing facility and has added the company's products to Import Alert 99-35, which covers produce that appears to have been grown, packed or held under insanitary conditions and flags future shipments for detention at the U.S. border without physical examination.

E. coli O145:H28 belongs to a family of Shiga toxin-producing bacteria that the CDC describes as capable of causing severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that is sometimes bloody, and vomiting, typically appearing within three to four days of exposure. Most healthy adults recover within a week without treatment. But in young children, older adults, pregnant people and those with weakened immune systems, the infection can progress to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication that can lead to kidney failure and requires hospitalization.

Who is affected

The recall's reach has broadened as it has moved from a single regional grocer to a national chain. The initial GreenWise recall reached Publix stores across roughly a dozen Southeastern and Southern states, while the Great Value expansion adds Walmart locations across 16 states stretching from the Gulf Coast into the Midwest, some overlapping with the earlier footprint and others, including Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, newly exposed to the recall notice. Shoppers who bought the specific lot are advised not to eat it and to discard the package or return it to Walmart for a refund.

Because the illnesses identified so far are concentrated in Florida and Georgia and predate the Great Value expansion, public health officials have not linked any confirmed case directly to the Walmart product. The concern driving the recall is the shared supply chain: the same Chilean grower and processor supplied berries later packaged under both the GreenWise and Great Value labels, according to the FDA notice.

Reaction and what happens next

Coverage of the widening recall has emphasized how far a single contaminated growing or processing lot can travel once it enters store-brand supply chains that serve multiple national retailers, a point Newsweek's reporting on the expansion underscored in mapping the affected states. NBC's Today.com noted that consumers should check freezers for the specific lot code rather than assuming all frozen berry purchases are affected, since only the identified lot is subject to recall.

A Class I recall applies when there is "a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," the FDA's recall guidance states.

The FDA says its investigation remains open, and further product or retailer expansions are possible if additional traceback work implicates more lots from the same Chilean supplier. The agency has not announced a timeline for closing the investigation. In the meantime, the company's recall notice lists a consumer contact line and email for questions about affected lots, and the FDA is continuing to update its outbreak investigation page as new information becomes available. Consumers who believe they became ill after eating frozen organic berries from either Publix or Walmart are advised to contact their health care provider and report the illness to their state or local health department.