Costco’s vice president of food safety and quality assurance, Craig Wilson said on Wednesday he had been told by the FDA that the E. coli O157:H7 in the chicken salad seems to be connected to the onion and celery mix, reports Food Safety News.
Costco uses only one supplier for the vegetables in its chicken salad sold in all its U.S. stores. Wilson identified the produce wholesaler as being Salinas, California-based Taylor Farms. Wilson also noted that the FDA must conduct one more test to confirm the outbreak strain is the same one found in the vegetable mix used in the chicken salad.
Taylor Farms is no stranger to food safety problems. In March, 2011, the company issued a voluntary recall for several of its vegetable and meat products sold in Raley’s and Safeway supermarkets because of Listeria contamination, according to the Tracy Press.
Two months later, Taylor farms had to recall salads mixed with grape tomatoes supplied by Florida growers. In October of the same year, there was another recall of 3.635 cases of salad blends produced by Taylor because of potential Salmonella contamination. In September 2012, Taylor Farms was linked to 103 suspected salmonella cases across four Eastern states caused by Taylor Farms’ Daniella Brand mangoes.