Chili Pepper Included In Popular Meal Kits Recalled For Salmonella

Spicy food fans, beware: a chili pepper included in several popular meal kits has been recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced Monday that a red chili included in several meal kits by Hello Fresh and its subsidiary Chefs Plate has been recalled. (Hello Fresh, a German startup, purchased the Toronto-based Chefs Plate in the fall.) The news came a day after the CFIA announced that the brand Canada Herb is recalling its red chili.

The chili comes as part of Hello Fresh’s coconut daal meal (both the two-person and four-person servings). It’s also in the two-person and four-person servings of Chefs Plate’s beef chow mein. The affected meal kits have been distributed in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. Any chili from those meals dated between Jan. 19 and Jan. 22 should not be consumed, the agency warns.

Young children, seniors, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable to infections like salmonella, and contaminated food might not necessarily look or smell spoiled. Salmonella poisoning can result in fever, headaches, vomiting, and nausea, and can lead to severe arthritis if left untreated. No illnesses have been reported yet.

Meal kits are increasingly popular for people who feel they don’t have the time or organizational skills to cook healthy meals on their own. Hello Fresh says it delivered 48.9 million meals to 1.84 million international customers worldwide between April and June of 2018.