The FDA announced that its Import Divisions may detain without physical examination, importations of enoki mushrooms from the ROK. This country-wide import alert, IA #25-21, “Detention Without Physical Examination of Enoki Mushrooms from Korea (the Republic of) due to Listeria monocytogenes,” was issued to protect public health and help prevent the importation of enoki mushrooms that could be linked to human infections. The FDA issues import alerts to help prevent potentially violative products from being distributed in the United States.
In fiscal year 2021, FDA testing revealed that 43% of enoki mushrooms sampled from the ROK were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes). L. monocytogenes is a human pathogen that can be found in moist environments, soil, water, decaying vegetation and animals, and can survive and even grow under refrigeration and other food preservation measures.
The sampling was conducted following an FDA investigation into a multistate outbreak spanning from 2016-2020. This outbreak linked multiple cases of human infections of L. monocytogenes to enoki mushrooms from the ROK. The outbreak accounted for a total of 36 U.S. cases reported across 17 states, 12 cases in Canada, and six cases in Australia. The 36 U.S. cases yielded 31 hospitalizations and four deaths.
From March 2020 through May 2022, state public health authorities conducted sampling of enoki mushrooms from U.S. retail locations. L. monocytogenes was detected in multiple state samples, which led to 21 recalls of enoki mushrooms in the United States. Nine of the recalls were linked to enoki mushrooms grown in the ROK and were confirmed by labeling, traceback, or whole genome sequencing (WGS).
After the 2020 outbreak, the FDA began implementing an Imported Specialty Mushroom Prevention Strategy, with a focus on enoki mushrooms, to protect public health and prevent future L. monocytogenes outbreaks in specialty imported mushrooms. The FDA’s prevention strategies are affirmative, deliberate approaches undertaken by the agency to limit or prevent the recurrence of a root cause that led to an outbreak or adverse incident.
