:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65238753/UR_Product_Image.0.jpg)
Richmond, California headquartered health food chain Urban Remedy has issued a voluntary recall on some of its products after spinach used in items like bowls, salads, and wraps tested positive for E. coli. The Chronicle reports that most of the potentially contaminated products hadn’t yet left Urban Remedy’s HQ, but that 76 bowls and wraps are unaccounted for.
Urban Remedy, which has 17 standalone cafes in California and is available at retail markets like Whole Foods, says the decision to recall its products were made out of “an abundance of caution.” The items in question were Urban Remedy’s Samosa Cauli Wrap, Green Tea Leaf Salad, Black Rice Umeboshi Bowl and Benedict Brunch Bowl, per the Chronicle.
Founded in 2013 in San Rafael, Urban Remedy has since raised $28 million to expand. It’s completely certified organic, and operates its own food production facility with 350 employees. The food company’s products are now available at retailers as far from California as New York and Connecticut, and in San Francisco, they’re even for sale at new-fangled spots like Amazon Go.
“Tech is enabling the consumer experience — but the product we’re selling is all about as close to nature as possible,” Urban Remedy CEO Paul Coletta said this spring, just as the company opened its fifth SF store in the lobby of an office tower occupied by Facebook.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “some kinds of E. coli can cause diarrhea, while others cause urinary tract infections, respiratory illness and pneumonia, and other illnesses.” E. coli outbreaks made a steady stream of headlines in 2018, but according to the CDC, they aren’t necessarily on the rise.
As Bill Marler, a leading food safety attorney, told Eater last year, more cases are linked to fresh produce than a decade or two ago, when E. coli outbreaks were more closely associated with hamburgers. Why the switch? That could just be Americans eating better.
