Dole continued shipping salads for a year and a half after knowing plant had Listeria contamination

Dole Foods knew about disease Listeria for over a year.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

last updated 29 April 2016

Dole company officials were aware a salad plant was contaminated with Listeria for a year and a half before they closed the facility, and did so only after the U.S. and Canada traced a deadly outbreak back to the plant, Food Safety News reports. The Listeria outbreak hospitalized 33 people in 2015 and early 2016; four of those patients died.

According to an inspection report, Dole swab-tested its Springfield salad plant in 2014 and found positive results for Listeria, but continued to ship salads to dozens of states as well as at least five Canadian provinces. Internal tests at Dole showed Listeria contamination five more times in 2014 and three times in 2015, but the plant was only shuttered in January 2016.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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