Iowa City Schools Unintentionally Served Lettuce that Was Later Voluntarily Pulled from Stores Due to Listeria Worries

The Iowa City School District issued a message to district parents Tuesday afternoon indicating that it had previously served bagged lettuce from the same River Ranch batch that was voluntarily recalled by the company due to concerns over listeria contamination.

The district stated that it was unaware of the recall until after the lettuce had been served, and pulled the affected lettuce afterward.

From a CBS News article on the River Ranch recall:

California lettuce grower, River Ranch Fresh Foods, has expanded its voluntary recall of some bagged salads to the entire country, after routine sampling detected contamination with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. No illnesses have been reported, the company said. (emphasis mine)

A press release from River Ranch indicated the recalled lettuce was sold under a variety of different labels, including Hy-Vee brand lettuce.

Retail salad products under this recall were distributed nationwide under various sizes and packaged under the brand names of River Ranch, Farm Stand, Hy-Vee, Marketside, Shurfresh, and The Farmer’s Market.

Foodservice salad products under this recall were distributed nationwide under various sizes and packaged under the brand names of River Ranch, Cross Valley, Fresh n Easy, Promark, and Sysco.

The recalled retail and foodservice salad bags have either “Best By” code dates between 12MAY2012 – 22MAY2012 or Julian dates between 116 – 125. The code date is typically located in the upper right hand corner of the bags.

The Iowa City school district stated in message to parents that upon hearing the news of the River Ranch recall, it pulled all of the remaining lettuce it had in stock. However, before this, the lettuce had been available at many schools in the district, according to the release.

Romaine blend is a daily choice in all secondary schools as a fresh vegetable choice and shredded lettuce is used daily in deli sandwiches and as a choice for made to order sub sandwiches (City & West).  For schools served by the City High kitchen (Lemme, Lucas, Twain, Wood, Hoover, Longfellow, Tate), chef salad was the only day (May 7) lettuce was provided as a choice. For schools served by the Northwest Junior High kitchen (Garner, Coralville Central, Kirkwood, Lincoln, Mann, Penn, Shimek, Wickham, Van Allen), Romaine was a choice on 5/14. For schools served by the West High School kitchen (Hills, Horn, Roosevelt, Weber), lettuce was offered 5/11, 14, 16, 18 as one of the menu choices.

Listeria is generally not a lethal affliction, unless contracted by pregnant women, the very young, or the very old. The Iowa City School District did mention that any child who has experienced flu like symptoms should seek medical attention.

Editor's Note: Headline changed to clarify that the district did not serve lettuce after it was recalled.