San Diego, CA, produce distributor Andrew & Williamson issued a recall late Friday, Sept. 4. for all of its “Limited Edition” labeled cucumbers sold during the period from August 1, 2015, through September 3, 2015.

Dave Murray, a partner in the company told The Produce News on Tuesday, Sept. 8, that the company was informed of an ongoing Food & Drug Administration investigation late that day that potentially implicated A&W as the source of the salmonella outbreak that first surfaced in July. To date, about 285 illnesses and one death have been traced back to the Salmonella outbreak with the first case reported in early July.

Though the FDA did not positively identify the A&W cucumbers as the source, there were enough indicators for A&W to immediately issue the recall. Murray said the company is only producing cucumbers from one Baja California field and packing shed so it has immediately ceased that cucumber operations. In addition, tomato packing operations from the same shed, though on a different packing line, were also halted. Murray said the tomatoes were not implicated in any way and no tomatoes have been recalled, but in an abundance of caution the company has stopped operations from that facility to both test it for the Salmonella pathogen and to scrub it clean from top to bottom. Though FDA inspectors had not yet visited the field and packing shed in question, Murray assumed that would be part of the investigative process. “We want to get to the bottom of this as much as anyone else,” he said. “We take food safety very seriously.”

He noted that the company will be out of the cucumber market for about a week. When A&W return to the marketplace, the cucumber harvest will have shifted to a new area and a different packing shed. To avoid confusion, Murray said the next lot of cucumbers will be marketed under a different label.

In its press release announcing the recall, company President Fred Williamson said: “The safety and welfare of consumers is the highest priority for our company. We are taking all precautions possible to prevent further consumption of this product and are working to learn if and how these cucumbers are involved in the ongoing outbreak.”

"Limited Edition" cucumbers were produced in Baja California and distributed in the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah and reached customers through retail, food service companies, wholesalers, and brokers.

According to press reports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the cucumbers were most likely the cause of an outbreak of Salmonella poona that began July 3 and has surfaced in 27 states. A 99-year-old San Diego woman’s death was traced to the bacteria and about 50 other people have been hospitalized.

Though the outbreak dates back to July, Murray said no cucumbers from July would still be in the pipeline, consequently the recall begins with product produced in early August.

This morning, noted food contamination lawyer Bill Marler announced in his daily blog that the first lawsuit linked to the Salmonella outbreak was electronically filed today in a Minnesota court. The case involves a woman who alleges that she was exposed to the bacteria at a Minneapolis Red Lobster on Aug. 11 and spent the next three weeks battling the resulting illness in a hospital and rehab facility.