HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Trader Joe's has announced its sixth food recall in five weeks, after learning one of its vendors inadvertently mispackaged some of its products.
The grocery chain is recalling packages of Texas Tamale Company's gourmet black bean tamales because they were instead packaged with the company's cheese and Hatch green chile variety, according to a statement from the Food & Drug Administration. The presence of cheese thereby causes an undeclared milk allergen, which is the reasoning Trader Joe's gave for the recall.
Affected packages were sold at Trader Joe's stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.
Texas Tamale Company products are sold frozen to Trader Joe's and other retailers such as Target, however, no other recalls involving the firm's product line have been announced.
This is the sixth recall for Trader Joe's in recent weeks, which has made previous announcements about such items as broccoli cheddar soup that possibly contained insect fragments, fully-cooked falafel that could contain rocks, and multigrain crackers that could contain metal.
The grocer has said the unfortunate string of incidents are coincidental, as each recall took place at separate manufacturing partner facilities.
One other recent recall affecting Trader Joe's, one for frozen fruit potentially tainted with Hepatitis-A, also affected retailers like Costco and Aldi.
No illnesses have been reported in association with the tamale recall and all affected products have since been removed from Trader Joe's shelves.
Representatives for Trader Joe's have said they do so as soon as they are made aware of any safety issue.
