Are Your Publix or Walmart Frozen Blueberries Recalled?

Check three things on the bag: brand, UPC, lot code. If they match the recall, you have a bag from the batch federal investigators tied to the outbreak in Florida and Georgia. If they don't, your other frozen berries aren't part of this. Frozen berries as a category aren't suddenly unsafe. One supplier's lots are.

How to identify the bag in your freezer

Any of these on your bag means it goes in the trash or back to the store. All recalled bags share the same Best By date: February 9, 2028.

The Walmart bag went to select stores in 16 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. Publix's GreenWise footprint covers the Southeast. If you tossed the bag but kept berries in a container and can't verify the lot, treat it as suspect.

What the FDA and CDC found

The outbreak strain is E. coli O145:H28, a Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) type that can cause bloody diarrhea and, in a small share of cases, a serious kidney complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. Illness onsets ran from May 11 to August 6, 2026. Traceback pointed to organic frozen blueberries from Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., a grower in San Carlos, Chile. Publix expanded its GreenWise recall to all lots on July 29. On August 18, the FDA escalated to Class I, meaning a reasonable probability of serious harm or death. On September 2, the recall grew again to add a lot of Walmart's Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend.

Why freezing and rinsing don't save the bag

Frozen berries feel like a safe pantry staple you dump straight into a smoothie. Two things about this pathogen make that wrong here. E. coli O157:H7 has been shown to survive on frozen strawberries for more than a month, and STEC strains generally aren't inactivated by freezer temperatures. A home rinse won't fix it either. Consumer washing of berries typically removes less than 2 logs of E. coli, because the bacteria hide in surface crevices and can move into the fruit tissue where water can't reach. The only reliable kill step is a validated process, not something you can do at the sink.

So the response is short. If your bag matches, throw it out or return it. Wash any bowl, blender, cutting board, or counter the berries touched with hot soapy water. Cross-contamination through wash water is a real route, so don't just rinse the blender jar.

Symptoms, and when to call a doctor

STEC illness usually starts 3 to 8 days after exposure, with painful cramps and diarrhea. Bloody stools often show up 1 to 5 days after the diarrhea begins. Most people recover in about a week. A minority progress to hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is why this outbreak is being treated as serious. It causes low platelets, red-cell breakdown, and acute kidney injury, and typically appears a few days after diarrhea starts. No HUS cases have been reported in this outbreak so far.

Call a clinician if diarrhea lasts more than 3 days, if there's blood in the stool, or if fever climbs above 102°F. Signs that warrant urgent evaluation: little or no urine, unusual pallor, easy bruising, or new confusion. Two treatment points matter. Skip the over-the-counter anti-diarrheal (loperamide and similar); antimotility agents have been linked to a higher risk of HUS in STEC infection. And don't push for antibiotics on your own. The evidence there is mixed, with β-lactams looking harmful in the higher-quality studies. Let the clinician make that call after testing.

How much this changes for berries in general

Not much. Documented U.S. E. coli outbreaks linked to frozen berries have been rare. The closest prior berry-linked event was the 2011 Oregon outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 tied to fresh strawberries contaminated by deer feces. Frozen berries have shown up in past outbreaks of hepatitis A and Listeria, not E. coli. This is a single-supplier problem, not a reason to give up on the freezer aisle.

What would change the picture: confirmed HUS cases tied to this outbreak, a broader recall covering more Walmart or Publix lots, or a published traceback pinning the source on the Chilean farm. Any of those would widen which bags are suspect and who needs closer monitoring. Until then, the answer is on the bag in your hand.