Lucky Supermarket Trying to Find Origin of Reported Moth Infestation

Lucky Supermarket will work with a snack food company in Ceres, CA, to find out how moths and worms ended up in packages of nuts sold to customers at the San Ramon grocery store.

According to news reports, it took several days for the almonds to be removed from Lucky's shelves.

The store has encouraged employees to be more aggressive in how they handle future concerns about food contamination, said Louie Yan, corporate spokesman for the grocery chain.

Customers and a reporter from KTVU Channel 2 said they found live and dead insects inside bags of "Sun Valley's Finest" slivered almonds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to media reports.

Sun Valley's Finest is a nut line from World Food Products, Inc., which packages dried fruits, nuts and snack items from its Central Valley headquarters in Ceres.

Christian Dartels is vice president of World Food. He said the USDA is working with Lucky and his company to find the origin of the moth infestation.

"This kind of thing happens when you're dealing with agricultural products," he said. "We acted as soon as we identified a problem." 

Dartels said World Food did a voluntary recall of the almonds, and that the problem seems to have been isolated to one store.

Yan, Lucky's spokesman, said the grocery store has since removed all the slivered almonds and offered customers full refunds.

"We partner with our suppliers closely, and in this case are awaiting the results of their investigation," said Yan. "They will advise us of their findings and the disposition of these products."

On Tuesday, in place of the almonds was a sign that said the product had been voluntarily recalled and apologized to customers who were inconvenienced.

Yan wouldn't say whether any employees had been reprimanded or whether the incident will change the way the company handles shelf pulls. Lucky did encourage employees to report problems when they find them and isolate a product if they suspect something's wrong.

"We are now reminding our employees that they are empowered to err on the side of caution … when they find or suspect a problematic product," said Yan, and "hold and isolate the pulled product until it can be fully inspected by our food safety team."

A handful of customers at Lucky on Tuesday expressed a range of reactions, from disgust to indifference, about the incident.

"We're talking about produce here, which isn't perfect. It comes from farms and from the earth and there are going to be imperfections," said Bonnie Dooms after collecting a couple bags of vegetables from the store. "It doesn't gross me out."

Others said it's unsettling to hear about an insect infestation, but that the store did the best it could by offering to refund those affected by it.