It can be challenging to decide what to eat for lunch during a busy workday, but a salad that is topped with your preferred fresh ingredients is typically a good option. However, with recent recalls (from salad mixes to even dressings), the formerly secure, light, and healthy option is beginning to seem like a risky choice.
Aldi, one of the most well-known grocery chains, has recalled its Tuscan Gardens Restaurant Style Italian Dressing due to undeclared allergens, adding their name to the ever-growing list of items to check your pantries or fridges for. Treehouse Foods, which creates and sells food items under their own brands, including this dressing for Aldi, is responsible for the recall.
It’s possible that some bottles of the Italian dressing actually contain Asian Sesame Dressing, as per the FDA recall. While someone who enjoys both dressings and has no food allergies would not be affected by this, it is a concern for those who have sensitivity because the Asian Sesame Dressing contains soy and wheat. Additionally, those allergens wouldn’t be listed on the ingredient labels due to the possibility that the incorrect dressing was packaged in bottles labeled “Italian dressing.”
Customers have been urged to search their pantries for any 16-ounce bottles of Tuscan Garden Restaurant Style Italian Dressings with the UPC 4099100074871 and the best-by date of August 10, 2023. In every state, Aldi sold these bottles from August 23 to September 23.
You can return these bottles to your neighborhood Aldi store for a complete refund if you have them at home. Have fun playing dressing roulette on your next salad if you don’t have any allergies to any of those potential ingredients, though.
Check out this page, which is updated frequently, to stay informed about recent recalls and health alerts related to your favorite brands.
Are Aldi products the same as Name Brands?
Aldi products are typically pretty close to their name-brand counterparts. Despite not being EXACTLY the same, they are frequently made in the same factories, making it difficult to distinguish between them through a taste test. The cost is the biggest distinction; Aldi is almost always vastly less expensive!
Why is Aldi So Cheap?
Aldi’s business model is to be a price leader and offer customers grocery and other items for up to 50% less than what other retailers give. It achieves this by maintaining a thin selection of popular private label items and a no-frills shopping experience.
Even though they are inexpensive, Aldi’s products are of high quality. Aldi offers high-quality products at lower prices than most retailers thanks to their business model, which aims to reduce unnecessary costs that are frequently passed on to customers.
One very significant point: the notices we noticed at Aldi only mentioned items that were currently on the shelf, not items that were previously on the shelf. Make sure the store where you bought the romaine from had a notice stating that it was safe if you bought it from Aldi in April 2018.
Trader Joe’s, a distant cousin of Aldi, has not made any public remarks regarding the fear. The romaine story is not mentioned in the news section of the Trader Joe’s website or on the retailer’s current social media presence. Individual shops may have details about the romaine that is currently available on the shelves.
UPDATE (11/22/19): For the second consecutive Thanksgiving season — and for at least the third time in two years — the CDC has issued a warning over an E. Coli outbreak in romaine lettuce. We’ll update this post as needed, but here’s what we know as of now:
Verify the labeling on the romaine you purchased from Aldi or Trader Joe’s. Throw it away if it says “product of Arizona” or doesn’t specify where it came from. It should be safe if you purchased it from an Aldi or Trader Joe’s that made it clear that it wasn’t made in Yuma, Arizona. However, the CDC advises consumers to err on the side of caution if they have any doubts.
Up to 90% of romaine lettuce sold in the United States comes from California and Arizona, so if consumers have romaine lettuce in their home, it is very possible that it came from the affected area. The CDC has not been able to trace the outbreak to any specific grower, supplier, distributor, or brand, and is telling consumers “do not buy or eat romaine lettuce at a grocery store or restaurant unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region.”