Trader Joe's Issues Sushi Recall Due To Potential Listeria Contamination

Put down that store-bought Tempura Shrimp Crunch Roll! Trader Joe's has announced a recall for several of its ready-to-eat products due to a potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination. As in, the bacteria that gives you food poisoning. It's particularly dangerous for young people, elderly people, and those with compromised immune systems.

Trader Joe's gets its ready-to-eat sushi from Fuji Food Products, a company that provides similar products to 7-Eleven, Walgreens, and regional grocery store chains nationwide. Late last month, a routine inspection of Fuji's Brockton, Massachusetts facility found that listeria (a bacteria) had potentially contaminated the product. That swiftly prompted the company's first ever recall. No one's actually gotten sick from the bacteria yet; the FDA characterized Fuji Foods' recall as one issued "out of an abundance of caution." Fuji has halted production of the potentially compromised products and is still investigating the source.

If you've recently purchased any of the recalled foods, Trader Joe's encourages you to return the product for a full refund. You can see the full list of recalled items and their date codes here, but it's basically their sushi rolls, poke, a noodle bowl, and queso fundido. (Queso! Is nothing safe?) And yes, all those products have been removed from store shelves.

Surely we can all agree that the main takeaway here is: Trader Joe's gets its sushi from the same place 7-Eleven and Walgreens do? Yep. So if you've convinced yourself up until now that the sushi you buy from cheery people in Hawaiian shirts is somehow superior to the packages you find at the drug store, you can eat your humble pie. (With your sushi in limbo, you have to eat something, after all.)