The supermarket chain Trader Joe’s issued its third voluntary food recall in a week on Friday, citing concerns that a frozen falafel product might contain rocks.
Consumers having purchased Trader Joe’s Fully Cooked Falafel were warned in a news release that foreign material might have contaminated the product.
The company recommended that anyone who purchased the product throw it away or return it to a Trader Joe’s location for a full refund.
Trader Joe’s has flagged other food items sold at its stores for potential contamination this past week.
For instance, Trader Joe’s Almond Windmill Cookies and Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies were affected by a recall notice issued by the company on July 25.
Those with “sell by” dates of October 2 and October 19-21 for the almond cookies and October 17-21 for the dark chocolate cookies were also said to potentially contain rocks.
On July 27, the company warned that certain batches of Trader Joe’s Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup could possibly contain something very “unexpected” indeed: insects.
Customers who purchased this soup with “use by” dates ranging from July 18 to September 15 were asked to discard the product and claim a full refund at a Trader Joe’s location.
As a national chain in operation since 1967, Trader Joe’s has over 560 locations across the country, including in Texas.
Some products offered by Trader Joe’s, such as the recently recalled broccoli soup, are limited in their distribution. For instance, the soup is only sold in Texas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington, according to CBS News Texas.
In a statement to CBS, the company spokesperson Nakia Rohde did not directly address the recent food recalls but stressed that Trader Joe’s issues them out of an abundance of caution.
“We don’t wait for regulatory agencies to tell us what to do,” Rohde said, according to CBS. “We voluntarily take action quickly and aggressively — investigating potential problems and removing a product from sale if there is any doubt about its safety or quality.”
Nonetheless, these latest food recalls are part of an alarming national trend.
A report from Sedgwick Claims Management Services in March revealed a staggering 700% increase in the number of food units recalled by the FDA in 2022 compared to 2021.
As reported in The Dallas Express in late June, Sunrise Growers Inc. asked the USDA to issue a voluntary recall for multiple frozen fruit products that could be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Some of these products had been sold to Trader Joe’s, alongside other popular retailers like Target, Walmart, and Aldi.
