Outdated frozen vegetable recall story spreads across social media

A warning dating back from July 2018 is spreading again about a frozen vegetable recall with many social media users believing it to be a recent recall.

In July 2018, Aldi, Lidl, Iceland, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose recalled several frozen vegetable products amid fears they could have been tainted with Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially fatal bacteria that could affect humans that consume tainted vegetables that have not been cooked properly.

However many reports have continued to spread across social media with users believing they refer to recent recall. Specifically, an article on PoliceHour.co.uk that begins with the alarmist headline Urgent National Frozen Veg Recall after nine dead.

That headline is alarmist. The nine deaths refers to the number of people who have died from a Listeria monocytogenes infection in Europe over the last three years (2015-June 2018, two in the UK), as opposed to the number of people who have died as a result of consuming those specific recalled products.

In order to avoid infection, the European Food Safety Authority advises consumers to thoroughly cook non-ready-to-eat frozen vegetables as per their instructions.

Continued below...

Thanks for reading, we hope this article helped, but before you leave us for greener pastures, please help us out.

We're hoping to be totally ad-free by 2025 - after all, no one likes online adverts, and all they do is get in the way and slow everything down. But of course we still have fees and costs to pay, so please, please consider becoming a Facebook supporter! It costs only 0.99p (~$1.30) a month (you can stop at any time) and ensures we can still keep posting Cybersecurity themed content to help keep our communities safe and scam-free. You can subscribe here

---

Remember, we're active on social media - so follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram and X