Kroger Pulls Caramel Apples After Study on Listeria Threat

A 2014 listeria outbreak linked to caramel apples baffled researchers because the bacteria typically does not breed in caramel or raw apples.

Out of those who were infected, 34 were hospitalized while seven died.

After studying both samples, they discovered traces of listeria bacteria on the caramel samples.

Kroger said it made the decision based on new scientific evidence that the product, if left unrefrigerated after being pierced with a stick, could be at risk for the bacterial disease. Of 31 people interviewed, 28 of them had eaten commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples before becoming ill.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium causing listeriosis, an infection characterized by diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and chills.

In New Mexico, they were sold at Smith’s Food and Drug, And in Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the caramel apples that were potentially contaminated with Listeria but not recalled were sold under the brands: Aamodt’s, Abdallah, Angeli Foods, Candy Jar, Carnival, Celebration, Circle K, Finnottes, Grandma Bev’s, Jerry’s Foods, Karamel King, Kowalski’s Markets, Kitchen Cravings, Lunds & Byerly’s, Supermom’s, and Wescott.

Researchers during the study noted that the average population of Listeria increased 1,000 times on caramel apples with sticks.

Wooden sticks were inserted through the stems of half of the apples.

But many questioned how this could be since you would not normally linke apples and listeria.

Glass and the research team theorized that inserting a stick in an apple allows a small amount of juice to migrate to the surface, and that moisture, trapped under the layer of caramel, “creates a microenvironment that facilitates the growth of any L. monocytogenes cells already present on the apple surface”. While apples stored at 44.6 degrees with sticks in them had less listeria growth than those stored at 77 degrees – and apples without sticks, even after 28 days, did not have listeria growing.

“It just didn’t make sense to us that people would get sick from apples”, Dr. Kathleen Glass, one of the authors of the study said according to BBC.

“Dipping the apples in hot caramel killed off a lot of the surface bacteria”.