A recall for Karawan brand tahini products, which has been linked to a Salmonella outbreak, has been expanded to include all sizes of the product produced between December 2018 and April 2019. Consumers, restaurants and food service operators should not use these products if they have them on hand.
The expansion of the recall, initially issued on May 15, 2019, was prompted by product tests conducted by New York state health officials that were positive for Salmonella. Brodt Zenatti Holding LLC of Jupiter, Florida the importer and distributor of the product also previously issued a recall for SoCo brand tahini in connection with this outbreak. The company has stopped importing and distributing both brands while the outbreak is investigated.
Made from sesame seeds, tahini is among the seed and nut butter products regularly linked to food poisoning outbreaks. “Nut butters, seed butters and tahini can become contaminated with foodborne bacteria including Listeria, E. coli or Salmonella after the roasting process,” said Attorney Fred Pritzker, whose national food safety law firm Pritzker Hageman filed an E. coli lawsuit on behalf of a child who developed a life-threatening complication of an E. coli infection called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) after eating I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter at a daycare in Flagstaff, AZ.
Pritzker Hageman food poisoning attorneys also represented clients who were sickened or suffered the wrongful deaths of loved ones from peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella produced by Peanut Corporation of America during a massive outbreak in 2008-2009.
The Karawan tahini Salmonella outbreak has sickened four people, hospitalizing one of them. The illnesses, two in New York and one each in Massachusetts and Texas, were reported in March 2019. Some of the people sickened, who range in age from 8 to 32 years old, reported eating tahini at restaurants in New York before they became ill. State health officials tested the tahini at those locations. They found the outbreak strain of Salmonella in both open and sealed containers of the product found at one of the restaurants.
If you have been sickened by a recalled Karawan or SoCo tahini product, call us toll-free at 1 (888) 377-8900 for a free consultation. You can also send a text to 612-261-0856. Or, use the form below. The consultation is free and there is no obligation.