A food supplier has recalled prepackaged sausage, egg, and cheddar cheese on English muffin breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks stores stores in Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma over concerns that the sandwiches may be tainted with listeria.
The tainted products come from Progressive Gourmet, a food supplier based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, CNBC reports. The sandwiches come in a six-ounce, clear plastic package, and the packages are marked “Best Before: 07-AUG-2016.”
Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee chain, has removed the sandwiches from all 250 stores that “potentially received” them, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Listeria was detected on a contact surface in the food production facility, and Progressive Gourmet is “working closely with FDA and the Massachusetts Department of Health and continues to investigate the source of the problem,” CNBC reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says otherwise healthy individuals usually suffer only short-term symptoms from the listeria infection, but listeriosis can cause serious illness in higher risk individuals. Older adults, pregnant women, newborns, and individuals with weakened immune systems are at greater risk for serious illness, according to the CDC. Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. The infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women. The CDC advises anyone with symptoms of listeria infection to seek immediate medical care.
A Starbucks spokesperson told NBC News, “As soon as we were made aware of a supplier issue with a specific lot of Sausage, Egg and Cheddar Breakfast sandwiches, we removed the impacted product from the select Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas area stores that carried it.” No other products are affected because of this issue. We have not received any reports of illnesses to date.”
Starbucks customers who have bought the sandwiches in affected states can return them to the shop where they made the purchase.
