The Year in Food Recalls

A. Scattergood

It was a bad year for orange fruit (papayas, cantaloupes) and leafy greens (especially romaine). Ground turkey took a big hit (36 million pounds recalled), and raw milk products were pulled from shelves. Here's a look back at 2011 in food recalls, a year of E. coli conundrums, Listeria hysteria and Salmonella scares.

Flickr/janineomg

5. Papayas: In July, Agromod Produce of McAllen, Texas, recalled all of its papayas because of potential contamination with Salmonella. The papayas, all imported from Mexico, were linked to 97 reported cases of Salmonella agona, including 10 hospitalizations, in 23 states. By August 26, the U.S. had decided to detain all papaya imports from Mexico after testing uncovered that 16 percent of the fruit was contaminated with Salmonella.

Flickr/grongar

Organic Pastures raw milk was quarantined in California.

4. Raw milk: Then there was the not so rawesome raw milk products recalled in November after three children were hospitalized with E. coli infections after drinking California's Organic Pastures raw milk. Under protest, the company pulled its raw milk, butter, cream, colostrum and "Qephor" from store shelves.

FDA

Salads were tossed.

3. Bagged salads: Bagged salads were especially dirty this year. In September, California's True Leaf farms recalled 2,498 cartons of chopped romaine lettuce because it was contaminated with Listeria. That was quickly followed by the recall of 3,265 cases of bagged salads in October by Taylor Farms Retail, another California producer, due to possible Salmonella contamination. In November, Irwindale-based Ready Pac Foods Inc. recalled 5,379 cases of bagged salad products containing romaine lettuce because of possible contamination with E. coli bacteria. Between the three companies, they hit the food-borne bacteria trifecta.