WHOLE FOODS JOINS "ONION" RECALLS

Whole Foods Market - whose motto is "Selling the highest quality natural and organic products" - has now joined the Gills onion triggered food recalls. It is recalling certain fresh food items sold in the prepared foods departments, and one item sold in seafood departments, of its 17 Florida stores.

Prepared foods in other stores such as Trader Joe's and Wegmans have already been pulled from store shelves and destroyed. They all used recalled cut-up onions from Gills Onions, LLC, of California, which were later found to carry Listeria monocytogenes bacteria (see previous post and the next one). So you assumed that Whole Foods would chop its own nice whole locally-grown organic onions on the premises instead of using those same mass produced, already chopped up products in huge bags that travelled thousands of miles from California?

The Safe Food Handbook (now in its second edition) argues for eating whole foods and avoiding prepared foods - especially fresh ready-to-eat prepared foods. But it is not an argument for shopping at Whole Foods. In spite of its super-healthy image - and, in my opinion, a highly inflated stock price - it has sold more than its fair share of contaminated foods over the years. They run the gammut - cheeses, chocolate, tuna, produce, baked goods and more (see for example, my earlier post on "A Bad Year for Whole Foods").

To your good health,

TSF