Check Your Fridge — Peeled Garlic Brand Issued Deadly Recall Warning

Most home cooks will list garlic among their go-to seasonings in many recipes, as it's not only flavorful, but it may also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Who knew it could also be dangerous, though? Tops Friendly Market knows now. The grocery chain, which operates out of New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, recently issued an urgent recall bulletin regarding the Garland peeled garlic product it carries. The 6-ounce bag bears UPC codes 00068826753408 and 00071894000005. Sell-by dates are irrelevant, since the recall affects all products with these codes. 

A few days earlier, Tops Friendly Market also recalled Christopher Ranch peeled garlic, also in 6-ounce bags, with a UPC code of 00007457410852. As with the Christopher Ranch product, the Garland peeled garlics were not stored at a low enough temperature. It's labeled as needing to be stored between 32 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Christopher Ranch brand should be stored between 32 and 37 degrees Fahrenheit. The coolers in which both were kept, however, have not been maintaining these temperatures consistently. 

There is a chance that improperly stored garlic might pose a risk of botulism. Clostridium botulinum toxins contaminate garlic while it's still growing in the ground, but they don't really start to grow and thrive until they reach a temperature above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and are deprived of oxygen (as might be the case in a sealed plastic bag). As the most severe cases of botulism can be deadly, this garlic recall is categorized as Class 1. This highest class of food recall acknowledges a reasonable risk of illness along with the potential for fatalities.

If you're a Tops shopper and have some of this garlic in your possession, you may return it to the store with proof of purchase for a full refund. Even if you've lost the receipt, go ahead and toss it because it's better to be safe than sorry. If you're replacing it with fresh garlic, here's a restaurant trick to facilitate peeling them in bulk. For storage purposes, though, you're better off leaving it unpeeled. Unpeeled garlic can be kept in the pantry instead of the fridge; as long as it's exposed to oxygen, even an extended stay at room temperature won't permit botulism spores to develop.

If you leave a head of garlic intact, it may last for up to six months in the pantry. Should you separate it into individual unpeeled cloves, these will be okay at room temperature for about three weeks. Peeled cloves, however, do need to be refrigerated (hence the Tops recall), and even so, they may start to go off within a week. (They're unlikely to develop botulism at temps below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, however, so no need to panic if they've been in the fridge a bit longer.) 

Another convenient option is to peel the cloves and then freeze them. This is what I do, and yes, it does affect the texture, but then, I seldom use garlic in uncooked applications or ones where it really needs to stay crunchy. Slightly mushy frozen garlic cooks up just the same as the fresher, firmer kind, with no risk of spoilage or food-borne illness.