30 Food Recalls That Poisoned the Most People

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20. Townsend Farms
> No. of cases: 162
> No. of deaths: 0

An outbreak of hepatitis A virus linked to pomegranate seeds from Turkey sickened 162 people in 10 states in 2013. Townsend Farms, Inc. used the seeds to make the Townsend Farms and Harris Teeter Organic Antioxidant Blends. The FDA detained shipments of pomegranate seeds from a Turkish exporter when it was discovered they were the source of the outbreak. Townsend Farms, located in Fairview, Oregon, announced a voluntary recall of its Organic Antioxidant Blends.

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19. Foster Farms
> No. of cases: 634
> No. of deaths: 0

Chicken produced by Foster Farms caused a 17-month-long outbreak of salmonella in 29 states and Puerto Rico. The first sign of the outbreak appeared in March 2013 and by July 2014, a total of 634 people were affected by the pathogen, among them about 241 were hospitalized.

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18. Bon Vivant
> No. of cases: 1
> No. of deaths: 1

In 1971, a can of Bon Vivant vichyssoise soup was tainted with botulism that killed a banker from New York and sickened his wife. In July 1971, Bon Vivant Inc. voluntarily recalled 6,444 cans of the product. Botulism results from a toxin derived from a bacteria that can contaminate foods during the canning process.

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17. Odwalla
> No. of cases: 65+
> No. of deaths: 1

Odwalla Inc. was forced to recall its unpasteurized apple juice following an E.coli outbreak in 1996. More than 65 people in the western United States and British Columbia were sickened by the beverage, and one child died. The Half Moon Bay, California-based company recalled the juice from its 4,000 distributors and shut down its apple juice and carrot juice production facilities in California. Odwalla was held criminally responsible for the outbreak and pled guilty to 16 federal charges and paid a $1.5 million fine. The company was eventually bought by Coca-Cola.

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16. Cargill
> No. of cases: 75
> No. of deaths: 1

Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation in Springdale, Arkansas, had not just one, but two outbreaks of salmonella in 2011. The first outbreak occurred in August 2011, when one person died and another 75 became ill after consuming Cargill’s ground turkey. The company had to recall nearly 36 million pounds of meat. Less than a month later, the same strain of the foodborne illness was found again, leading to a recall of an additional 185,000 pounds of ground turkey.