People who purchased Trader Joe’s salad in certain states are being advised to throw away or return the packaged product this week. The Crunchy Slaw with Chicken, Crispy Noodles & Peanut Dressing maybe came out a little to crunchy in versions sent to Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah: it may contain hard plastics, the company announced on its website on Thursday.
While salad is a common product in the food safety recall world, that generally tends to be due to the high rates of foodborne pathogens with the potential to make customers sick. But any packaged food can fall victim to manufacturing line mishaps, as seems to be the case in this incident.
Trader Joe’s says the issue was flagged by the supplier themselves, rather than through customer reports. The salads involved in the recall bear the SKU #94988, and will have a “use by” date between March 9 and 12—which means they are already past their prime. Luckily, the company reports that there have been no injuries reported and the remaining affected packages have already been pulled from the shelf.
If you purchased the salad, the company asks you “please do not eat it,” and they encourage customers to discard the product or return it to the store for a full refund. If you have questions —like whether or not you can get a refund if you tossed it—the posting suggests you call the store’s customer relations line or email them.
Written by: Naomi Tomky
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