P.B. County schools warned about recalled apples

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP/WPTV) -- A Pennsylvania company says bagged red apple slices voluntarily recalled last week may have been distributed to the Palm Beach County school district.

RELATED: More recall news

Appeeling Fruit Inc. recalled the Snack Fresh brand apple slices due to potential contamination with listeria monocytogenes, which can cause serious infections.

The district said there was listeria on one of Appeeling Fruit Inc.'s countertops, but it hasn't actually been found in any apples.

"Whenever we have any situation like this, we do have a standard operating procedure of pulling the product, getting it back to the vendor and that's what happened.  There's nothing that was found with the apples at all, so everything's safe and good," said Allison Monbleau, the Palm Beach County School District director of food service.

According to a statement late Monday from the company based in Dauberville, Pennsylvania, the Palm Beach County School District was notified Sept. 9 of the recall.  The school district then told all cafeterias to stop serving them immediately. 

Parents were not notified because the school district said there was no reason to believe that the apples that were served were contaminated.  The county health department is not involved in the recall.

"If it wasn't just a precautionary issue, if there was some issue, we would definitely notify parents right away, and the health department would be involved," said Monbleau.

Appeeling Fruit Inc. said Monday that 40 cases of the snacks still haven't been retrieved and destroyed and may have been distributed in the district.

President Steve Cygan says the district promptly notified individual schools about the recall.

The recalled 2.oz bagged snacks have a best-if-used-by date of Sept. 21, a UPC code of 74641 00982 and a production date stamp of 310815.

Related Link: http://appeelingfruit.com/index.php/1810-2/