Spinach recall second at Amy’s Kitchen in past five years

The food recall announced this week by Amy’s Kitchen is the second for the Petaluma natural foods maker within the past five years, the company said late Monday.

The previous recall involved a discovery of peanuts, which can trigger allergic reactions in some people.

In that instance, “our inspection procedures revealed that a supplier’s tree nuts contained peanuts, and we immediately contacted the supplier and moved forward with a recall,” Amy’s spokeswoman Susan Grelock wrote in an email.

Grelock didn’t say what year the recall occurred or the quantity or nature of the recalled products.

Sunday’s voluntary recall involves nearly 74,000 cases of multiple food products. It was undertaken because the spinach in the frozen dishes may contain the harmful bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

The recalled products from Amy’s went to stores nationwide in the United States and Canada, the company said in a news release issued Sunday. The items include 10 lasagnas, three tofu scrambles, two enchilada verde dishes, two brown rice and vegetable bowls, a stuffed pasta shell bowl and a spinach pizza.

The food maker said it issued the recall after frozen-vegetable processor Coastal Green Vegetable Co. of Oxnard sent out its own recall notice warning that Amy’s may have received spinach containing listeria.

On Tuesday, two more organic food companies recalled products using spinach from Coastal Green. Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans Food Markets recalled roughly 12,540 packages of spinach sold in six East Coast states, while Hayward-based Carmel Food Group issued a recall of Rising Moon Organics frozen ravioli. It was unclear how many packages or cases of ravioli were produced or where the product was distributed.

Both Coastal Green and Amy’s said they have yet to hear of any illnesses linked to the suspect spinach.

In her email, Grelock said Amy’s officials “don’t yet know the scope of the cost” from the recall.

However, the amount of recalled items represents a fraction of the company’s production. Amy’s Kitchen produces the equivalent of about 675,000 meals a day.

Amy’s Kitchen, founded in 1988, is one of Sonoma County’s largest locally based businesses, with sales on track this year to reach an estimated $500 million.

The company has become one of the nation’s top brands of natural and organic convenience foods, with its all-vegetarian offerings including frozen meals, soups, breakfast foods and desserts. Amy’s ranked fifth with $213 million in sales for ?single-serve frozen dinner entrees during the 52-week period ending Jan. 25, according to ?Chicago-based market research firm IRI.

Listeria “can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” according to the press release from Amy’s.

The potentially affected products were made between January and March. A complete list of the recalled items and their manufacture dates can be found in a document posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website: http://bit.ly/1LOjYZ2. Consumers are urged to dispose of the items or return them to retailers for a full refund.

This article includes information from the Associated Press.