With So Many Cucumber Recalls, Are They Safe To Eat?

Is there something special about them that makes them extra susceptible? Safety experts weigh in.

It’s been a rough year for cucumbers. You may remember this past December, when there was a major recall of cucumbers potentially infected with salmonella, which had already been distributed to numerous U.S. states. Well, it happened again this summer: In May, another salmonella outbreak was attributed to cucumbers, and it was connected to cases of illness in 21 different states.

The outbreak late last year was traced to growers in Sonora, Mexico, but the more recent one came from Boynton Beach, Florida — nowhere near each other. In both cases, the cucumbers had been used and distributed in a number of secondary products, like premade salads and vegetable platters, so the Food and Drug Administration had to recall a slew of different items from various stores, including major chains like Walmart and Kroger. The source farm, Bedner Growers, emphasized in a statement that the recall was voluntarily initiated. Then, in June, a farm in Texas initiated a recall of its cucumbers for, once again, possible salmonella contamination.

This seems like a lot of drama for the humble cucumber. We spoke to some food safety experts to find out how unusual this is, and to get some context on how contaminations happen and what you, as a consumer, should know.

First of all: Do I need to toss the cucumbers in my fridge every time there’s an outbreak?

That depends. The thing about produce is, of course, that it spoils, so it’s not as though a contaminated cucumber could hang out in your fridge or at the grocery store indefinitely. The outbreak originating in Mexico last year affected cucumbers harvested in October and November, and by early January, the FDA declared the outbreak over on the basis that any potentially affected products would be past their shelf life anyway.