USDA Issues Health Alert for Some Ivar’s Prepackaged Soups

On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued an alert likely to affect a fair number of Seattle consumers: Several types of Ivar’s prepackaged chowders and one type of Pike Place Market chowder may have been contaminated and should be thrown away.

Here are the products affected:

• 48-ounce packages containing two 24-ounce cups of Ivar’s Puget Sound Clam Chowder With Bacon.
• 48-ounce packages containing two 24-ounce cups of Ivar’s Loaded Baked Potato Soup.
• 48-ounce packages containing two 24-ounce cups of Ivar’s Rustic Zuppa Toscana Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup.
• 20-ounce cups of Ivar’s Puget Sound Clam Chowder With Bacon.
• 20-ounce cups of Pike Place Fish Market World Famous Clam Chowder With Bacon.

For a full list of which expiration dates need to be tossed, go to the FSIS website.

What’s wrong with these chowders and soups? Apparently the FSIS was notified by the Ivar’s chowder plant in Mukilteo, where these products were made, that customers had been complaining of “bloated soup packages” (gross). According to the Seattle Times, Ivar’s shut down production and tested every batch of soup it made since November, discovering that some soups had been contaminated with the bacterium pseudomonas as they were packaged and chilled.

There have been no reports of anyone actually getting sick from consuming these soups, and Ivar’s said that the soups it sells to other restaurants or serves itself were unaffected. If you bought one of the soup cups in question, you can email souphelp@keepclam.com for a refund.