Minnesota health officials are investigating an outbreak of foodborne illness associated with eating “Garden of Life Organic Shake & Meal Replacement” in Minnesota and several other states.
Two cases of Salmonella Virchow infection with the same DNA fingerprint pattern have been reported to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) since Monday, January 11. One case was a child and one was an adult in his 30s. Neither was hospitalized, and both have recovered.
Several matching Salmonella Virchow cases in other states have reported eating this product, which is a powdered nutritional supplement and meal replacement. These states include Wisconsin, Tennessee, Oregon, New Jersey, New Mexico and Utah. Most of these states have reported single cases.
One of the Minnesota cases ate vanilla flavored product and one ate chocolate flavored product. Cases in other states reported eating the vanilla flavor or the chocolate flavor. This type of food product is often purchased at nutrition stores and food cooperatives. The two cases in Minnesota purchased the items at separate places.
This is an ongoing investigation, and the extent of the product contamination is unknown. Based on the information collected to date, health officials recommend not eating any flavor of this product if purchased on or after November 1, 2015. Additionally, product with a “Best Used by: 09/2017” date or later stamped on the bottom of the container should not be consumed.
Garden of Life LLC issued a voluntary recall on Friday.
Symptoms of salmonellosis include diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. Symptoms usually begin within 12 to 72 hours after exposure, but they can begin up to a week afterexposure. Salmonella infections usually resolve in 5 to 7 days, but approximately 28 percent of laboratory-confirmed cases require hospitalization. Invasive infections (for example, blood stream infections, meningitis) occasionally occur.
In rare cases, Salmonella infection can lead to death, particularly in the elderly or those with weakened immune systems. Many Salmonella infections in otherwise healthy people do not require medical treatment. For those who do seek health care, most do not need to be treated with antibiotics. However, antibiotic treatment for certain categories of people and for more severe infections is warranted.
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Isn’t it about time for the organic industry to follow the rules laid out in the National Organic Program and start testing organic crops to ensure manure is being properly composted?
What a load of bs! This Raw Meal has not been traced to anything! They have tested the formula and found nothing in any of them. This whole case involves one 30 year old man in Miinesota, who gave some to his child, which he should never have done. It says right on the bottle to keep it away from kids. So, because he drinks this, his salmonella is blamed on Garden Of Life? The powder was tested by the FDA as well as the company. They found nothing! So, this supposed “outbreak” is overblown, and not verified as being real. The company is simply taking no chances for the time being, doing the responsible thing. I drink this every day. I have just drank two of the large size, 34.8 oz. jugs in the last two months, and I feel great! And, my jugs are both on the recall list. Reason being is that certain states all have the same code. I have two more coming in the mail. I will not throw it out but drink it, and until they find at least one other person that gets sick, and can prove that Garden Of Life is the culprit, it would be dumb to toss it out. How can one person know what it was he ate that made him sick? How do we know it was not a piece of meat from a fast food place or maybe he undercooked some chicken? Again, there has been no signs of any salmonella in any of the products-EVER! So, it looks to be a possible scam to me. Lets see some proof of a bad product before we lynch a fine American company that puts out great, top of the line high energy organic products.