Image by Thinkstock

You may want to hold off on that lox to go with your bagel and schmear — at least until you can be sure that the smoked salmon was not produced by the Dutch company Foppen.

There has been a widespread salmonella food poisoning outbreak linked to Foppen’s lox, which is sold in the United States by Costco, under its Kirkland house brand. In response to notification on Monday of the outbreak by Foppen, Costco has removed all of the lox from its shelves and has blocked it from being scanned at its stores’ checkouts.

Although Costco hasn’t received direct reports from customers about food poisoning from the salmon or found any contamination in the samples of the product it has tested, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has learned that over 100 people in this country have been sickened from eating the lox. The numbers of affected people in The Netherlands so far is unclear, with reports ranging between 200 and 300. Thousands of people have been calling a product recall hotline set up by Foppen, and the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority expects to hear of more cases of illness.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Foppen has traced the source of the outbreak to one of its factories in Greece. However, at this point, the company has not determined the exact cause of the infection of the fish

In the meantime, it might be best to play it safe by making your own gravlax, just be sure your fish is very fresh.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount