PROVIDENCE – Customers are advised to discard any food items prepared at Compare Foods, 863 Broad St., Providence, the R.I. Health Department said in a warning late Friday.
Affected by the warning are prepared foods including sandwiches, deli sliced meats and cheeses, and deli salads, such as tuna, macaroni, seafood, turkey, ham and cheese or potato salad, or cole slaw. Any such foods “should be discarded, because there is the potential that they may be contaiminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the Health Department said.
Multiple samples collected from the market, during an investigation of an illness, tested positive for the bacteria, the department said.
Healthy people infected with the bacteria may suffer only short-term symptoms, such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, the department said. But Listeria can be serious or even fatal in young children, the frail or elderly, and those with weakened immune systems, and may cause miscarriage or stillbirth in pregnant women.
Please contact your health-care provider if you have consumed any food prepared at Compare Foods and you experience any of the symptoms above, the department said.
