SOUTH FLORIDA PRODUCE RECALLING JALAPENO PEPPERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 27, 2012 – South Florida Produce, LLC is recalling Jalapeno Peppers.

South Florida Produce, LLC is recalling Jalapeno Peppers, because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

The recalled Jalapeno Peppers were distributed to Distributors in Oxford, NC, Lake Worth, FL, Washington, DC, Pompano Beach, FL, Fair Lawn, NJ, Toronto, Ontario, Canada via customer truck between March 5 through March 7, 2012.

The product comes in bulk 1 1/9 bushel cartons marked with the lot #’s J000010995, J000010996, J000010997, J000010998, J000010999, J000011000, J000020135, J000020136, J000020137, J000020138, J000020139 and J000030053. These lots #’s appear on the pallet labels located on the front and back of each pallet.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

The potential for contamination was noted during a routine testing by a retail store which revealed the possible presence of Salmonella in packs of 2, 10 and 40 count packages.

Customers that have inventory with the above lot numbers are urged to destroy the product and contact Leslie DiStefano, Director of Sales & Food Safety at 954-459-0106 to verify receipt of this recall and destruction of the product.