Northborough Wegmans Not Included in Recall

Northborough's grocery store's headquarters, Wegmans Food Markets Inc. (based in Rochester, N.Y.), has announced the recall of 5,000 pounds of imported, Turkish pine nuts sold in bulk between July 1 and Oct. 18 in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland, reports the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.  

The nuts have been connected to a salmonella outbreak causing two people to end up in the hospital and illnesses in 40 others in these states as well as Arizona beginning back in August. The Telegram & Gazette report said that The Food and Drug Administration is currently looking into the matter. Tuesday, Oct. 18, was two days after , but these particular pine nuts were not sold in the Northborough store or most likely in other stores with a small bulk-food section.

"The Turkish pine nuts from our Bulk Foods department were never sold at the Northborough store," Jo Natale, spokesperson for Wegmans, told Northborough Patch. "There would have been no other pine nuts available for purchase in the bulk foods department at Northborough. Customers may have purchased packaged pine nuts in the grocery department (in bottles and available in a few different brands, one of which is Wegmans brand). These products were not part of the recall."

The Telegram & Gazette reports that salmonella, a type of bacteria, often causes diarrhea, fever and cramps and says that officials state Wegmans is cooperating thoroughly with the investigation. The chain placed over 13,000 calls to customers who used a store discount card known as Shoppers Club when they paid for their grocery orders which included the contaminated nuts.

Natale told the Telegram & Gazette, "Not everybody who bought the nuts used a Shoppers Club card, but the vast majority are represented by those 13,000-plus people we called."