Your Hungry Man might have to settle for salad tonight: Lakeland, Florida-based Publix today ordered a recall on four seasoning mixes (call them "mother's little helpers") distributed in all 735 of its Florida stores.
Bad enough that we've had to haul back our baby food and dog kibble, our burger meat, scallions, pistachios, and tomatoes -- now they want our seasoning too. Meat loaves across South Florida are destined to taste a lot blander in the coming days.
Consumers are asked to return four Publix products: Mushroom Gravy Mix, Publix Meatloaf Seasoning, 1.45 ounce packets of Publix Beef Flavored Stew Mix, and Publix Au Jus Gravy Mix -- they've all tested positive for salmonella. And while you're at it, you'd better return your Pringles.
Last week, the Pew Charitable Trust released a
report that named Florida as the fourth worst state in the union
for food-borne illnesses.
As noted in Pew's awesome interactive graphic, Florida has 4.9 million cases of reported food illnesses a year. Apart from that phenomenal number of cases, we also pay more to treat them: Our average expense to deal with a food-related illness from e.coli or salmonella is $1,984 -- adding up to $9,799,000,000 -- almost $10 billion a year in Florida. Looks like that tally may have just taken a jump.
When contacted by New Times, managers at one Publix supermarket at Woods Plaza, Lake Worth, said they weren't aware of the spice mix recall. "We haven't seen anything come back yet," they said.
