Sabra Hummus Just Recalled Nearly Every One Of Their Products
Sabra Hummus just experienced a nasty recall.
A recall of the hummus-making giant’s products was expanded recently after Listeria monocytogenes were discovered at its manufacturing facility.
According to Modern Farmer, virtually every flavor and product of Sabra hummus has been added to the recall list, meaning that almost all of Sabra’s products are off of the shelves. Below is a list of all of the Sabra products affected:
Photo: FDA
Listeria is a particularly nasty food-borne pathogen. While it can just cause mild gastrointestinal illness (ie. diarrhea), it can also lead to serious health consequences such as meningitis. This is a more serious, invasive form of Listeriosis, (as the disease is called) and is the third deadliest pathogen in the United States, with over 90% of those infected each year ending up in the hospital. It also has a higher rate of meningitis in elderly or already sick populations, and leads to several miscarriages or stillbirths in pregnant women.
Outbreaks of Listeria are very common in products like hummus, which are refrigerated, ready-to-eat, and high in protein – the perfect environment for cold-loving Listeria to grow in. Once it’s found on equipment, it’s incredibly hard to get off – as Blue Bell just recently found out.
The Blue Bell ice cream manufacturer, who already has had to stop production once due to Listeria once before, issued another recall due to the pathogen earlier this year.
Massive outbreaks that affect an entire company have destroyed the image of a brand multiple times before. Blue Bell is a more recent example of that, as is the heavy hit Chipotle took when their massive food-borne illness outbreak began. These companies were able to survive and continue selling product, but others weren’t so lucky.
Jack in the Box, for example, nearly went out of business when an E. coli outbreak killed four children and caused their parent company to lose over $160 million in sales. Salmonella knocked the Peanut Corporation of America out of business after the bacteria was discovered in its peanut butter – and the company knowingly shipped it anyway. Hallmark Beef had to file for bankruptcy in the largest meat recall in history, where over $143 million of beef had to be recalled.
With nearly all of Sabra’s hummus being recalled and the popularity of the hummus giant, this recall is at the scale of those of companies who have failed to recover in the past. This means that there is a possibility we may not see Sabra products in the future. They have to at least clean their facilities and ensure they are free from Listeria contamination – a process that took Blue Bell over half a year to get right.
Fortunately, that has proven to not be the case for Sabra, who recently confirmed to Foodbeast that inspections and cleaning have taken place, products are in production again and heading back into stores, and full inventory restocking should occur within the next few weeks.
Kudos to Sabra for getting everything sorted out so fast and getting back into stores. They definitely have gotten the cleaning and sanitation process necessary to reopen production down to a swift science. Cheers for getting your hummus back up so quick, Sabra, and let’s hope we don’t experience another scary, massive recall like this for a while.
