Frozen Organic Blueberries Recalled Over E. Coli — Here's What's in Your Freezer

If you've got a bag of organic frozen blueberries in your freezer, it's worth two minutes to check the brand and lot code before your next smoothie. CDC is actively investigating an E. coli O145 outbreak linked to frozen organic blueberries from a single supplier in Chile, and the recall has expanded twice in the last six weeks — most recently to include Walmart's Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend on September 2.

Here's the short version: Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend (10 oz, Lot Code 6040 01-6, Best By 2/9/2028) sold at Walmart, and GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries (all lots, 10 oz and 48 oz) sold at Publix, are recalled. If you have either in your freezer, don't eat it — throw it away or return it. Below is what's actually confirmed, what's still under investigation, and what to watch for if you've already eaten some.

What's Actually Happened So Far

As of September 3, 2026, CDC counts 17 people infected with E. coli O145:H28, a Shiga toxin-producing strain, across two states — 13 in Florida and 4 in Georgia. Six people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Illness onset dates range from May 11 to August 2, 2026, meaning this outbreak has been building quietly for months before the recall caught up to it — a pattern that's common with E. coli investigations, since it can take weeks to connect scattered cases to a single source through interviews and lab testing.

Of the people CDC has interviewed so far, 11 of 13 — about 85% — reported eating frozen blueberries before getting sick. That's a strong enough signal that FDA traced the product back to its source: Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., a grower and processor based in San Carlos, Chile. FDA has since added the company to Import Alert 99-35, meaning its frozen blueberries can now be detained at the border without physical inspection until the company demonstrates the contamination issue is resolved.

This is genuinely still an open investigation, not a closed case. CDC's own outbreak page is being updated as new cases and states are confirmed, so treat everything here as the picture as of today, and check CDC.gov and FDA.gov directly if you're reading this more than a few days after publication — recalls like this one tend to keep shifting for weeks.

The Products You Can Actually Check at Home

Two separate recalls, from two different retailers, trace back to the same Chilean supplier. Here's exactly what to look for in your freezer.

Great Value (Walmart):

• Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10-ounce bag
• Lot Code: 6040 01-6
• Best By: February 9, 2028

This is the product added most recently, on September 2. It was shipped to select Walmart stores in 16 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin.

GreenWise Organic (Publix):

• GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries, 10-ounce and 48-ounce packages
• GreenWise Organic Whole Mixed Berries, 10-ounce and 48-ounce packages
• All lot codes — this recall isn't limited to one production run

These were sold across eight states in the southeastern U.S. Publix issued this recall first, on July 29, before it expanded to include the Walmart product a month later.

If either product matches what's in your freezer — regardless of whether you've already eaten some or the bag looks and smells completely normal — don't eat it. E. coli contamination has nothing to do with how fresh food looks, smells, or tastes. There's no test you can do at home that tells you whether a specific bag is affected.

What to Do If You Have the Recalled Product

Throw it away or return it. Either works from a safety standpoint. Most stores, including Walmart and Publix, will accept a return of a recalled product without a receipt, since the packaging itself is the identifying information.

Don't taste it to check. This sounds obvious, but it's a genuinely common mistake — a small taste is enough to make you sick, and it tells you nothing useful anyway.

Clean anything the bag touched. If the sealed bag sat in your freezer next to other food, or if you opened it and used a blender, cutting board, or storage container, wash those surfaces with hot, soapy water. FDA specifically recommends sanitizing anything that came into contact with the recalled berries, since E. coli can transfer to surfaces and survive there.

Don't assume freezing killed the bacteria. This is one of the more counterintuitive parts of frozen food recalls: freezing stops bacteria from multiplying, but it doesn't kill E. coli that's already present. A product can sit in your freezer for months and still be contaminated exactly as it was the day it was packaged.

If You've Already Eaten It: What to Watch For

E. coli O145 produces a Shiga toxin, which is the same broad category of E. coli behind some of the more serious outbreaks in recent years (including the well-known O157:H7 strain). Symptoms typically show up within 3 to 4 days of exposure, though it can range from 1 to 10 days. What to watch for:

• Severe stomach cramps
• Diarrhea, which may become watery or bloody
• Nausea and vomiting
• Low-grade fever

Most healthy adults recover within a week without needing treatment beyond rest and fluids. But this strain carries a real risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication that can cause kidney failure, dangerously high blood pressure, and in rare cases, neurological problems. HUS typically develops about a week after symptoms start, often just as the initial diarrhea seems to be improving — which is part of why it catches people off guard.

Call a doctor if:

• Diarrhea lasts more than three days, or you see blood in your stool
• You develop a fever above 102°F
• You notice decreased urination, unusual bruising, or pale skin — these can be early signs of HUS
• You're caring for a young child, an older adult, or anyone with a compromised immune system who ate the recalled product

Mention the recall specifically when you call, since it helps your doctor know to consider E. coli testing rather than treating it as a generic stomach bug. And unlike some bacterial infections, antibiotics are generally not recommended for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — in some cases they can actually increase the risk of HUS by causing the bacteria to release more toxin as they die off. That decision belongs to your doctor, but it's worth knowing going in that "just give me antibiotics" isn't the standard approach here the way it might be for other infections.

If this feels like the third or fourth produce recall you've read about this year, that's not your imagination — Taylor Farms' lettuce recall spanned 27 states earlier this year, and the Taco Bell lettuce outbreak that sickened over 11,000 people followed a similar traceback pattern. A Chipotle jalapeño salmonella outbreak and an ongoing cyclospora outbreak tied to fresh produce round out a rough year for produce safety.

Why This Keeps Expanding

If you're noticing this recall has grown twice already, that's a normal part of how these investigations unfold, not a sign that things are spiraling out of control. FDA's traceback process works backward from confirmed illnesses to a supplier, then forward again to figure out everywhere that supplier's product ended up. Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. apparently supplied frozen berries to more than one U.S. retailer's private-label supply chain, which is why both a Publix store brand and a Walmart store brand trace back to the same grower.

It's worth being precise about what's confirmed versus what's still developing. Seventeen illnesses and six hospitalizations is the CDC count as of this writing — genuinely serious for the people affected, but a relatively contained outbreak compared to some produce-linked events that have run into the thousands of cases. The investigation being "open" means CDC and FDA are still actively working to confirm whether additional products, lots, or retailers are connected, not that the situation is worsening day by day.

Why Imported Frozen Produce Carries Extra Risk

Frozen fruit is one of the more common vehicles for E. coli and other foodborne illness outbreaks, and it's worth understanding why, because it's not really about "frozen" being less safe than "fresh." The issue is upstream, at the point of harvest and processing.

Fresh berries typically move from farm to store shelf within days, which limits how long any contamination has to spread or how far it can travel before a problem gets noticed. Frozen berries, by contrast, are often harvested, individually quick-frozen (IQF), and shipped internationally — meaning a single day's harvest and processing run at one facility in Chile can end up packaged under multiple private-label brands and distributed across a dozen or more U.S. states before anyone knows there's a problem. That's exactly the pattern here: one grower, two retailers, 19-plus states of potential distribution.

It also means contamination that happens once, at the source, doesn't get diluted or resolved by time. Unlike fresh produce, which spoils and gets discarded within days if unsold, a contaminated lot of frozen berries can sit in warehouses, store freezers, and home freezers for months or years before it's eaten — which is part of why illness onset dates in this outbreak span nearly three months, from mid-May to early August, even though the source is a single supplier.

None of this means you should avoid frozen fruit generally — it remains one of the most practical, affordable ways to eat produce year-round, and outbreaks like this one are still relatively rare against the volume of frozen fruit sold safely every year. But it's a reasonable prompt to actually look at the brand and country of origin on your next bag, rather than treating "organic" and "frozen" as a safety guarantee on their own. Organic certification governs how the fruit is grown — pesticide use, soil practices, and so on — it says nothing about pathogen contamination, which is a food-safety issue, not a farming-practice issue.

Quick Answers

I have organic frozen blueberries but they're not Great Value or GreenWise — am I safe? Based on what's been confirmed so far, only products traceable to Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. — sold under the Great Value and GreenWise labels — are affected. Other brands aren't implicated at this point, but if you want to double-check, FDA's recall database lists the specific product and lot details.

Why does a "Best By" date of 2028 matter if this happened months ago? Frozen food carries a shelf-stable best-by date that reflects quality, not safety from contamination. The Great Value product could have been sitting in your freezer since it was purchased, regardless of when the underlying contamination occurred at the source. That's exactly why lot codes matter more than purchase date here.

Is it safe to eat other frozen fruit while this is under investigation? Yes — this recall is specific to one supplier's frozen organic blueberries and berry blends, not frozen fruit broadly. There's no indication other brands or other fruit varieties are affected.

Does cooking or blending the berries kill the bacteria? Cooking to a high enough temperature can kill E. coli, but blending into a smoothie does not — it just distributes any contamination evenly through the drink. If you have recalled product, the only safe move is disposal, not attempting to "cook it out."

I don't live in one of the listed states — could I still have bought it? Grocery distribution doesn't always respect state-level recall lists perfectly, especially for private-label products that can move between distribution centers. If your bag matches the brand, product name, and lot code above, treat it as recalled regardless of where you live.

The Bottom Line

Check your freezer for Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend (Lot Code 6040 01-6) or any GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries or Whole Mixed Berries. If you find either, throw it away or return it — don't eat it, and don't taste-test it to check. Watch for severe cramps, bloody diarrhea, or reduced urination in the days after eating either product, and call a doctor if you see those signs, especially in kids or older adults. This investigation is still open, so we'll update this page if CDC or FDA confirm additional products, lots, or states.

If this recall has you wanting more control over where your frozen produce actually comes from, Thrive Market stocks vetted organic groceries with clearer sourcing information than most conventional grocery aisles, and new members get $30 off their first order.

Recalls like this one aren't limited to produce — infant formula has had its own string of them, and the same "check the lot code before you panic" approach applies. Our breakdown of how to read infant formula labels using recall lessons walks through the same principles for parents stocking a different part of the freezer or pantry.

Affiliate Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely believe in. This helps support our work and allows us to continue providing free content.

Last updated: 2026-09-04