RECALL ALERT: Pine Nuts with Salmonella

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to eat Turkish pine nuts distributed by Sunrise Commodities, based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, after FDA tests confirmed the presence of Salmonella on the product.

FDA is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State public health and agriculture officials to investigate a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections. To date, the CDC reports there are at least 42 illnesses associated with the outbreak in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

As part of FDA’s investigation, the Agency collected samples of Turkish pine nuts from a warehouse used by Sunrise Commodities. Additional testing is underway on FDA’s Salmonella positive samples of pine nuts to determine if the Salmonella detected matches the outbreak strain. FDA's State partners also collected samples of pine nuts distributed by Sunrise Commodities; some of those samples tested positive for Salmonella and matched the outbreak strain.  Sunrise Commodities distributed the Turkish pine nuts in bulk to various food vendors in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Canada. Sunrise Commodities issued a recall notification to its customers dated November 3, 2011, alerting them of the test results and of the epidemiologic investigation and asking them to notify their subsequent customers of the recall.

Wegmans Food Markets, one of the companies that received Turkish pine nuts distributed by Sunrise Commodities, recalled the product from their stores on October 26, 2011. As the investigation continues, additional recalls may take place.
If consumers have Turkish pine nuts or products containing Turkish pine nuts and are not sure if the pine nuts are part of Sunrise Commodities’ recall, then they should contact the store where the food item was purchased or throw the product away. 

Source: fda.gov