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Oops: Whole Foods Labeled Real Chicken Salad As "Vegan"
By
Jen Carlson
Published May 10, 2013
Modified May 10, 2013
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By
Jen Carlson
Published May 10, 2013
Modified May 10, 2013
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Vegan or meat? (Photo of chicken salad at Whole Foods, via Midtown Lunch)
Northeastern Whole Foods stores, including the ones right here in New York, have been serving up real meat and egg filled chicken salad labeled as vegan chick'n salad. The labels—for a curried chicken salad and a vegan curried "chick'n" salad—were reversed at some of their cold food bars. Whole Foods spokeswoman Libba Letton said the mix-up was discovered by an employee and the mislabeling took place at a "company-owned commissary that supplies food to the stores."
According to the AP, the mix-up happened in 15 stores (in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York)—"in some locations, the salads were sold in the cold food bars where customers can scoop food into containers... in other locations, it said the salads were displayed in the prepared food sections behind glass."
The FDA noted that the vegan salad contains soy, whereas the curried chicken salad contains egg, so "people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy or eggs run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they eat the salads."
Did YOU just eat meat as a vegan or vegetarian? These falsely-labeled salads were sold on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and we've reached out to Whole Foods to find out which New York City stores were offering the mislabeled salads.
So far no illnesses have been reported.
UPDATE: A Whole Foods rep tells us these are the stores that were affected: Columbus Circle and the Upper West Side stores in NYC; Jericho, Lake Grove, and Manhasset in New York; Darien, Fairfield, and West Hartford in Connecticut; Framingham and Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Milburn-Union, Montclair, Rose City-Madison, and West Orange in New Jersey.
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chicken salad
food fail
oops
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Whole Foods
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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