11 Of The Absolute Worst Broccoli Recalls In History

Yahoo

25-03-2025

How many times in your life have you been told that broccoli is healthy for you? If you're anything like us, probably thousands, and for good reason. Broccoli is one of the most nutritionally-dense vegetables out there, and is packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Unfortunately, though, these wholesome qualities don't stop it from being potentially troublesome in different ways. Like other types of fresh produce, broccoli has been subject to some rather large recalls throughout history, which have left customer confidence in this cruciferous veggie a little damaged.
There are a lot of reasons why vegetables can be recalled in massive quantities, but when it comes to broccoli, one stands above all the others: It is especially susceptible to Listeria contamination, with many of the biggest recalls occurring as a result of the bacteria clinging onto the food. Listeria bacteria show up time and time again on broccoli and other fresh produce thanks to its presence in soil, and the fact that these veggies aren't cooked before being sent out, which decreases the ability to decontaminate them. Listeria isn't the only reason why broccoli is recalled, though: Broccoli products have also ended up heading out to market with external objects like rocks, glass, and even bugs in them, causing customers a lot of worry and disgust. Let's check out some of the worst broccoli recalls ever -- just make sure you're not eating while you read this.
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Bagged broccoli is meant to be convenient, and it's also meant to be safe. Unfortunately, in late 2024, one specific product turned out to be a serious inconvenience for Braga Fresh, a broccoli producer that works closely with Walmart to supply it with its veggies. The company had to issue a recall notice for its bags of washed and ready-to-eat Marketside Broccoli Florets, which were sold in Walmarts around the country. The reason? Listeria contamination.
The presence of Listeria was found when a store in Texas conducted some random sampling of the product, and found the bacteria. Unfortunately, this then prompted a large-scale recall, with 20 states being affected. Stores that had the broccoli spanned the country, with supermarkets everywhere from Kentucky to Los Angeles being affected. The recall got more serious as time went on, too. Although the initial recall notice was put out in December 2024, by the end of January 2025 the U.S. Food & Drug Administration revised the broccoli recall to give it the highest alert possible. The recall was given a Class I risk level, which indicated that the product posed a serious potential risk to human health and consuming it could result in some negative consequences.
Broccoli salad kits are meant to be one of the healthiest things you can buy in a grocery store -- and let's be honest, what they really shouldn't be is potentially harmful to your health. Sadly, in 2016, that's exactly what those made by Butterfield Foods turned out to be (well, potentially, at least). The company had to recall a frankly massive selection of its broccoli salad kits that were produced over a near-7-month timespan, thanks to the potential for Listeria contamination in each one of them.
The problem here wasn't necessarily the broccoli, though, and nor was it really Butterfield Foods' fault. The producer had to issue the recall after it was told that the sunflower kernels in its broccoli salad kits, sold to them by SunOpta, were involved in a potential Listeria recall of their own. As a result, Butterfield Foods dutifully (and probably resentfully) rolled up its sleeves and started to track down its products. This was no small task, considering how many items it had to find. Almost 16,000 pounds of salad kits had to be recalled in the end -– and if you think about how light each one of them probably was, you start to get a sense of the amount.
If you want a snack that will make you feel slightly healthier (even if, in reality, they're probably not the most nutritious choice you can make), then broccoli tots are where it's at. Unfortunately, you'd probably like them a lot less if you bit into them and found pieces of metal and rocks. That's exactly what happened in 2021, when customers who bought Birds Eye Broccoli Tots discovered both foreign objects in their food. As a result -- you guessed it -- a recall ensued.
Foreign objects like this in food are always serious, but thankfully, a lot of the time people come away from encountering them without injury. That wasn't the case here: Conagra, the company who makes the Birds Eye tots, had to deal with two instances of dental damage thanks to people biting into the hard items. It was a bit of a nightmare for the food producer, not least because it had to find several different batches of the product. It was just lucky that the injuries weren't more serious, and that the rocks and metal hadn't presented a more significant choking hazard.
When food recalls strike, what can seem like an isolated issue can soon spiral, leaving food companies having to track down dozens of different products sold in various different locations. These can be made even more complicated when they involve a specific ingredient, like broccoli, which can be used in lots of different ways. A classic example of this is a recall that occurred in 2021 in Canada, which saw the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA, having to recall 29 isolated products that all contained broccoli that may have been contaminated with Listeria.
The products were primarily sold in the Eastern provinces of Canada, including New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia. As for the items that were affected specifically, they were pretty broad. Everything from standalone broccoli florets, to veggie platters, to broccoli, bacon, and cheddar salads had to be tracked down. The good news for the CFIA was at the time of recall, nobody had reported becoming ill due to eating the affected broccoli. As the items being tracked down were fresh, there was also less chance of them being stored long-term and consumed later down the line.
We shudder to think about the amount of money some recalls can cost food producers. On average, a food recall will set a company back by $10 million in direct costs alone, with more losses occurring due to missed sales and that all-important brand reputation. Sometimes, though, recalls can occur on an enormous scale, with companies having to track down almost every one of their products due to the risk of contamination.
That's exactly what happened in 2019 to Mann Packing, a vegetable food company that shipped products to the United States and Canada. When the company discovered that its produce might be contaminated with Listeria, it had to recall pretty much its whole line -- which encompassed more than 100 individual products. Various items that contained broccoli, as well as broccoli on its own, were tracked down and pulled off shelves and out of produce aisles. The scope of the recall was gargantuan, partly because Mann Packing supplies so many different stores and other companies: H-E-B, Marketside, Trader Joe's, and Del Monte were just a few of the organizations affected by Mann Packing's misstep. Nobody was sick at the time of the recall, which kinda feels like a miracle given the amount of products that could potentially have been affected.
So, call us old-fashioned, but one thing we really don't want in our broccoli soup is bugs. It's hardly a big ask, right? Sadly, if you were buying broccoli soup from Trader Joe's in 2023, that's exactly what you might have found. Winter Garden Quality Foods, the company behind Trader Joe's Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup, had to issue a recall of the product after it was discovered that insects were found in the frozen broccoli florets in each container. Well, we guess the item was true to its name -- a cup full of bugs is definitely unexpected.
The bad news for Winter Garden Quality Foods, too, was that the size of the recall was pretty big. The company was forced to recall almost 11,000 cases of the soup, with multiple different lots -- and there were 12 containers in each case, all adding up to a huge amount of product. Plus, the product had been distributed to seven states. This recall was only given a Class III classification, indicating that it was unlikely to have any adverse health consequences, but it was still kinda gross.
While many broccoli recalls occur because of Listeria contamination, it's not the only bacteria that can cause problems with the cruciferous vegetable. In 2004, Florida-based company Marjon had to recall a broccoli sprouts salad blend, as well as an alfalfa sprouts product, because of the risk of E. coli contamination. These sprouts were shipped to seven states, causing a real headache for Marjon to get them back.
Broccoli sprouts are a hotbed for E. coli, and have often been under scrutiny for their ability to carry the germs and cause food poisoning. It all comes from the fact that sprouts are often eaten raw, and are grown in environments that are especially susceptible to E. coli. The bacteria spreads when contaminated water, often from cattle farms or other unpleasant sources, can make its way into the fields where the produce is grown. In this case, it was discovered that irrigation water that was used to nourish the sprouts had E. coli in it. Not exactly an appealing prospect for your lunchtime salad, huh?
You can get frozen broccoli pretty much everywhere and jazz it up at home. However, Stop & Shop was faced with the pretty unappealing prospect of getting rid of all of its Frozen Broccoli Cuts back in 2018, when its supplier discovered that the cruciferous vegetable could contain Listeria bacteria. The bacteria was found as part of testing conducted by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, and once it was uncovered the supermarket had to trawl through its hundreds of stores and dispose of the potentially contaminated product.
It was a good thing it did, too. While there weren't any reports of people becoming sick, Listeriosis (the illness that Listeria causes) can be incredibly dangerous. Infants, the elderly, and pregnant people can be especially susceptible to the disease, and in some cases it can even be fatal. When you add into the mix that Listeria bacteria can survive being frozen, which makes this product way more likely to infect people long-term, it was clearly a good move to get rid of the broccoli as soon as possible.
Another day, another batch of broccoli that's potentially contaminated with Listeria. This time, it was the turn of Alimentos Congelados, a food company that distributed batches of Wylwood Fresh Frozen Broccoli Cuts to various different stores back in 2016. The company was alerted to the contamination when the State of Ohio Department of Agriculture tested the product and found the presence of Listeria bacteria, which then initiated a recall.
Unfortunately for Alimentos Congelados, it wasn't just a few bags of frozen broccoli it was dealing with. The company was forced to find 1,800 cases of its product, likely weighing thousands of pounds overall. It also had to look far and wide for these cases. The Fresh Frozen Broccoli Cuts had been distributed to stores in a dozen states, with the product arriving in supermarkets everywhere from Florida to Indiana. The silver lining for the company was that nobody had become sick, but it was a close call for them -- considering that, y'know, the bacteria was literally there.
As it turns out, broccoli salad can be a pretty risky thing to purchase. There have been several recalls involving broccoli salad kits throughout history, but one of the biggest occurred in 2013. Back then, Taylor Farms Maryland and Texas had to put out a recall notice for almost 23,000 pounds of its broccoli salad kits, which had been distributed to seven states spanning the breadth of the country. The recall was first announced on October 25, but was swiftly followed by an expansion just four days later which increased the number of sought items massively.
Unusually for a broccoli recall, though, the issue here wasn't with the broccoli itself. Instead, it was discovered that an ingredient in the salad dressings used for the kits was part of a different recall due to Listeria. Luckily, nobody had reported illness at the time of recall, and it was a good thing too, as these kits held the potential to cause widespread harm. These weren't individually-packaged boxes you can pick up off a shelf, but were instead intended to be made and served at deli counters across the country, making the risk of cross-contamination even higher.
Broccoli's a firm favorite as an ingredient in noodle bowls, pasta dishes, and salads. However, no matter how delicious it is, if it's contaminated you're going to want to keep it well away from you. This was the case in 2011, when Taylor Farms Pacific had to put out a large recall of its products because they all contained broccoli that could have contained Listeria bacteria. These products were all made over the course of several weeks, and as you might expect, they were shipped around the country.
Taylor Farms Pacific was left with the unenviable task of trying to find roughly 64,000 pounds' worth of products. Customer favorites like Grilled Chicken Breast with Mashed Potato and Gravy, Udon Chicken Noodle Bowls, and Grilled Chicken Penne Alfredo were all suspected to have the offending vegetable. There were also a couple of salad mix products that the company had to find, which were sold via deli counters in affected stores. It looks like Taylor Farms Pacific got away with this one without anybody getting sick, which we're sure it's thankful for.
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