The frozen blueberry E. coli O145:H28 outbreak is over. On September 21, 2026, CDC closed it at 17 sick in Florida and Georgia, 6 hospitalized and no deaths, all tied to frozen organic blueberries packed by Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile, and sold as Publix GreenWise blueberries and mixed berries and as Walmart’s Great Value Organic Triple Berry Blend. FDA closed its file the same day, and the closure carries a fact no agency page had reported before: a Publix sample of the berries tested positive for the outbreak strain.
CDC closed the outbreak on September 21 at 17 sick, 6 hospitalized and no deaths.
CDC’s final investigation page says the 17 people ranged in age from 2 to 88, with a median of 47. Illnesses began between May 11 and August 2. Six of the 17 were hospitalized, which CDC puts at 35 percent. Of the 13 people interviewed, 11, or 85 percent, reported eating frozen blueberries before they got sick. Whole genome sequencing showed the patients’ bacteria were closely related. Florida reported 13 and Georgia 4 when CDC last broke out the states on September 3, and the count did not move afterward. FDA’s page lists the last onset as August 6 and CDC’s as August 2, a gap the two pages closed without reconciling.
The arithmetic of the closure, all from the agencies’ own pages:
| Date | What happened | Sick / hosp. | Source |
| July 3, 2026 | Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur recalls one lot (60401) of GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries, 10 oz, Best By Feb. 9, 2028, sold at Publix in eight states | — | FDA |
| July 6 | CDC posts the outbreak: Florida and Georgia, onsets May 11 to June 5 | 12 / 4 | CDC |
| July 29–30 | Publix recalls every lot of GreenWise Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries (10 oz and 48 oz); FDA reports a remote regulatory assessment of the Chilean firm and places it on Import Alert 99-35 | 12 / 4 | FDA |
| Sept. 2–3 | Great Value Frozen Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10 oz, lot 6040 01-6, Best By Feb. 9, 2028, recalled from Walmart stores in 16 states; CDC adds five sick and two hospitalizations | 17 / 6 | CDC, FDA |
| Sept. 11 | Walmart distribution corrected to 26 states and Puerto Rico | 17 / 6 | FDA, CDC |
| Sept. 21 | CDC declares the outbreak over; FDA calls its investigation complete and discloses the Publix positive sample | 17 / 6 | CDC, FDA |
Sources: CDC outbreak notice and investigation details (updated September 21, 2026) and FDA outbreak advisory (content current as of September 21, 2026), read September 22, 2026. Check: 12 plus 5 equals 17; 4 plus 2 equals 6; Florida 13 plus Georgia 4 equals 17; 6 of 17 is 35 percent; 11 of 13 is 85 percent; May 11 to August 2 is 83 days; July 6 to September 21 is 77 days.
A Publix sample of GreenWise blueberries tested positive for the outbreak strain, and the public learned it on the day the file closed.
Here is the sentence FDA added on September 21: “All samples collected by the FDA were reported as negative; however, earlier in the investigation, Publix, as a customer of Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., San Carlos, Chile, collected and tested product samples of their GreenWise-brand Frozen Blueberries, and one sample tested positive for the same strain of E. coli that made people sick in this outbreak.”
When I wrote on September 3 that nothing in the CDC or FDA postings reported a positive product sample, that was true of the postings. The July 3 recall notices had called a product test a “presumptive finding,” and every agency page since had been silent about it. Now FDA says who ran the test and what it found: Publix, and the outbreak strain. FDA does not say when Publix pulled the sample, when the result reached the agency, or why a product match to the outbreak strain stayed out of every update between July 6 and September 21. A positive product sample is the fact that turns “linked to” into “found in,” and a retailer’s laboratory produced it while the government’s samples came back clean. Credit Publix for testing. The question is why the result waited for the closing paragraph.
FDA never walked the plant in San Carlos. It inspected by remote and detained at the border.
FDA’s advisory says the agency “conducted a remote inspection of Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. and collected records from the firm,” and that products from the firm are on Import Alert 99-35, meaning frozen blueberries it offers for entry “may be detained without physical examination.” That is the whole enforcement record for a packer whose fruit put six Americans in the hospital. No one from FDA stood in the field or on the freezing line. The closure names no cause: no water source, no harvest crew, no processing step. On July 30 FDA said its remote assessment raised concern about “at least one other lot” used in additional products, which is what drove Publix to recall every lot. The closure does not say what became of that lot or who else received it. I wrote this month that FDA’s foreign food inspections are down nearly 35 percent since 2019. This is what that number looks like in one file: a records review over the internet standing in for a person on the ground.
The recalled berries carry Best By dates of February 9, 2028, and the retailers’ own pages do not match FDA’s.
Both recalled lots, GreenWise 60401 and Great Value 6040 01-6, carry a Best By date of February 9, 2028. FDA’s own closure warns that “some recalled product has ‘Best By’ dates ending in 2028,” which is the agency’s way of saying the berries will still be in freezers next year. The pages a consumer would check do not agree with each other. Walmart’s corporate recall page still lists the Triple Berry Blend recall in 16 states; FDA has said since September 11 that the lot went to Walmart stores in 26 states and Puerto Rico. Publix’s corporate recall page no longer lists the GreenWise recall at all; on September 16 it read “There are no Publix recalls at this time,” and the original notice returns a page-not-found. A closed outbreak page is not a cleared freezer. Freezing does not kill Shiga toxin-producing E. coli; it preserves it.
Three questions the closure did not answer.
First, hemolytic uremic syndrome. CDC’s page does not report HUS in this outbreak. Five to 10 percent of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections progress to it, mostly in children, and the youngest patient here was 2. Either nobody developed HUS, which is worth a sentence, or somebody did and the number was left off. Second, the timing of the Publix positive. “Earlier in the investigation” is not a date. If a retailer held a product match to the outbreak strain as early as July, the September 2 expansion to Walmart’s Great Value blend came weeks after proof existed that the packer’s fruit carried the bug. Third, the other customers. Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur packed for at least two American retailers under two private labels. FDA has not said whether it packed for anyone else, or whether the import alert has caught a single shipment.
What to do if you have frozen organic blueberries or a berry blend in the freezer.
Check for GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries or Whole Mixed Berries in 10-ounce or 48-ounce bags from Publix, and for Great Value Frozen Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10 ounces, lot 6040 01-6, from Walmart. Throw them out or return them, and wash anything they touched with hot, soapy water. Symptoms usually begin three to four days after exposure: severe cramps and diarrhea that turns bloody. See a doctor for bloody diarrhea, a fever above 102 or signs of dehydration, and in a child watch for decreased urination, paleness and unusual fatigue, the warning signs of HUS.
My earlier coverage: twelve sick and no word from public health on July 4, what E. coli O145:H28 is on July 8, and the Walmart expansion on September 3. Food Poison Journal carried the Publix all-lots recall, why blueberries had never done E. coli before and the Great Value recall; the E. coli Blog carried the consumer version. Food Safety News reported the closure this morning.
Seventeen people, six hospital stays, a positive product sample the public saw for the first time on the day the file closed, and a plant in Chile that nobody from FDA has walked. The outbreak is over. The berries in the freezer do not know that.
Is the frozen blueberry E. coli outbreak over?
Yes. CDC declared the E. coli O145:H28 outbreak linked to frozen organic blueberries over on September 21, 2026, and FDA called its investigation complete the same day: 17 sick in Florida and Georgia, 6 hospitalized, no deaths, illnesses from May 11 to August 2, 2026.
Which frozen berries were recalled for E. coli O145?
Publix GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries lot 60401 (recalled July 3), every lot of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries in 10-ounce and 48-ounce bags (recalled July 29), and Walmart Great Value Frozen Organic Triple Berry Blend, 10 ounces, lot 6040 01-6 (recalled September 2). All were packed by Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile, and the recalled lots carry a Best By date of February 9, 2028.
Can I still get sick from recalled frozen blueberries now that the outbreak is over?
Yes. Freezing preserves Shiga toxin-producing E. coli rather than killing it, and the recalled bags are dated to 2028. If you have one, throw it out; if you ate from one and have bloody diarrhea, severe cramps or a fever above 102, see a doctor and mention the berries.
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