Fry’s Food Stores, Fred Meyer, and Kroger is recalling select cheese dips sold because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis. No customer illnesses have been confirmed to date.
On July 31, the companies were notified by supplier Onions 52 that they had received red, yellow, and white onions from Thomson International, Inc., which had been implicated in the salmonella-related outbreak. On August 1, bulk onions sourced from Thomson International, Inc. were removed from sale in stores that had been identified as receiving the affected product. Subsequently, it was determined that several in-store made cheese dips may have used red onions from the produce department as an ingredient.