An unwelcome discovery by a couple of salad eaters included a
sordid new ingredient.

On Saturday, the company Fresh Express announced a precautionary
recall of some of its prepackaged salad mixes, after two people
in Florida say they found a dead bat in their leafy greens.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
two had eaten some of the product before finding the decomposed
organism in a 5-ounce clear container of the Organic Marketside
Spring Mix.

But "out of an abundance of caution," Fresh Express says in a
statement, all Organic Marketside Spring Mix salads from that
production lot are subject to the recall.

The mix in question was distributed exclusively to Walmart
stores located in the Southeastern region of the U.S. Walmart
has since pulled the product from its shelves, the company adds,
and no other Marketside salads are included in the recall.

Florida health officials, the FDA and the CDC have launched an
investigation into the matter.

Due to the animal's decayed condition, the CDC couldn't
immediately rule out whether this particular bat carried rabies,
but recommended the two people who ate the contaminated salad
receive treatment for the disease.

"Both people report being in good health and neither has any
signs of rabies," the CDC says.

The deadly rabies virus is endemic to bats across the U.S., but
is rarely contracted by humans. And, as the CDC points out,
transmission through consuming an infected animal is "extremely
uncommon." The agency adds that it hasn't heard of any other
cases of bat material found in packaged salads.

"People who have eaten the recalled salad product and did not
find animal material are not at risk and do not need to contact
their health department," the CDC advises.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2017/04/09/523154228/fresh-express-issues-recall-after-dead-
bat-reportedly-found-in-prepackaged-salad