Listeria scare prompts federal food recall warning

These Co-op brand frozen vegetables are among a long list of frozen vegetable products that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recalled from stores. If you have any in your freezer, throw them out or take them back to the store.

If you have frozen bags of mixed vegetables, green beans or stir-fry vegetables bearing the Co-op Gold, Western Family, Harmonie or IGA brands in your freezer, throw them out now or take them back to the store, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a warning issued May 7.

That’s because they may contain Listeria monocytogenes, a nasty bug that can make you very sick.

Listeria symptoms include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness, the federal food safety watchdog said.

The agency also said pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are at particular risk: the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn baby, or still birth.

And severe cases of listeria may be fatal.

The recall covers a long list of frozen vegetable products, including mixed vegetables, cut green beans and stir fry vegetables.

The warning covers Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, and possibly the whole country.

But in Nunavut, Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. and North West Co. ship many of their products from Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is covered by the warning.

And it includes products from ACL house brands that are available in Nunavut: Co-op and Co-op Gold.

The full list of recalled products is available here, on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website.