More than 22,000 fruit juice containers have been recalled over fears they could be contaminated with a potentially dangerous bacteria.

Evergreen Orchard Farm in New Jersey has recalled its Korean Pear, Grape, and Jujube juices after FDA investigators discovered there was no documentation showing these juices had been pasteurized.

In the US, the majority of juices undergo pasteurization, a process where they are quickly heated and then cooled, to eliminate any harmful bacteria such as salmonella or E. coli before reaching consumers.

These bacteria can lead to symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, posing significant risks for young children and seniors with weaker immune defenses.

The juices were sold in retail stores in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the alert said, and at the farm itself, which is based in New Jersey.

The FDA has classified this as a Class II recall, which indicates that while the risk of ‘serious adverse health consequences’ is unlikely, it is still present.

No sicknesses have been reported due to the juices to date.

Pictured above is a case of Korean pear juice, one of the juices that is in the recall

The FDA issued the recall in early July, but published an update on Wednesday stating the recall was now a Class II.

The juices were sold in foil pouches holding four ounces of fluid each, with 25 of these pouches packaged in every case.

The recall was for 15,250 pouches of Korean pear juice, with affected products bearing the codes P20261110 and P20261130.

It also included 4,925 pouches of Jujube juice, which have the codes J20260910 and J20261110, and 1,950 pouches of grape juice, with codes G20261215.

Although the FDA does not mandate pasteurization for juices sold directly at farms, it requires that these juices be refrigerated and labeled with a warning if they are not pasteurized, indicating the possible presence of harmful bacteria.

In this instance, it seems FDA investigators were informed that the juices were pasteurized, but the farm could not substantiate this claim with its own documentation.

This means it is unclear whether the juices were pasteurized and record of the process was lost, or they had not been pasteurized at all.

Fruits may become contaminated with harmful bacteria via irrigation if the water used is contaminated with animal feces. 

Shown above are the three juices in the recall on sale at the farm in 2022

There was no record that the juice was pasteurized, suggesting they could be contaminated with a dangerous bacteria (stock photo)

During pressing, the harmful bacteria can then be mixed into the juice, meaning major manufacturers need to use treatment to remove it.

Most manufacturers in the US started to pasteurize juice in the 1990s after an E.coli outbreak from unpasteurized apple juice sickened 70 people and killed a 16-month-old girl.

Of the patients, 25 were hospitalized and another 14 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that leaves the kidneys less able to filter the blood.

Many other countries pasteurize their fruit juices, including the UK, Sweden and France. Australia does not have a mandatory requirement to pasteurize all fruit juices.

Pasteurization is also used for milk in many countries, including the US, where it eliminates dangerous bacteria and viruses such as bird flu, amid concern that the disease could spread into humans.

Salmonella infections can trigger symptoms within six hours to six days after someone becomes infected. 

Warning signs include diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever, nausea, vomiting and, in some cases, blood in the stool.

For healthy people, the infection will generally last to a few days for a week before symptoms ease.

But in severe cases, the bacteria may spread from the intestines to other parts of the body and cause sepsis. 

The Mayo Clinic says someone should book to see a doctor if the infection does not clear up in a few days and it is causing them to become dehydrated, with signs such as urinating less or dark-colored urine.

People tend to catch salmonella by consuming raw or undercooked seafood, red meat, poultry or unpasteurized milk or fluids.

About 1.35million people are infected with salmonella in the US every year and 420 die from the disease.

E.coli numbers vary greatly as it is often undiagnosed, but the CDC estimates there are about 95,000 cases and at least 30 deaths annually.