NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A local wholesaler and distributor yesterday encouraged consumers in The Bahamas to look at their bottles of Jergens ‘Ultra Healing’ lotion purchased in the last few months due to possible bacterial contamination.
Bahamas Wholesale Agencies (BWA) Ltd Purchasing Manager Justin Higgs said Jergens contacted the company and advised that BWA had received some of the impacted Jergens ‘Ultra Healing’ batch that was potentially contaminated — the three-ounce and 10-ounce bottles specifically.
“We were contacted by them with regards to [the] recall and they gave us a particular code on the bottom of the bottles that they wanted us to go to all stores that we have sold to, as well as look in our warehouse, to confirm that we didn’t have any of that product, and they wanted us to obviously dispose of it,” Higgs told Eyewitness News when contacted.
“And so, we’ve dispatched, pretty much, our entire sales team to search for the particular code and our warehouse has already confirmed that we don’t have any in the warehouse.
“We are still waiting on our sales team to hear back, but we still haven’t found any in the market in terms of it still being on the shelf.
“But we were told by Jergens that we did get some of that particular batch I think it was back in October, and so we’re just in the process of trying to work with stores to see if there is any on shelves to try and remove it before people actually go ahead and buy it.”
BWA is the distributor of Jergens in The Bahamas.
Kao USA Inc., the Cincinnati-based manufacturer of Jergens, warned consumers last week about its Ultra Healing moisturizer in sizes of three ounces and 10 ounces.
According to Food and Drug Administration statement, a limited number of the products could show the presence of ‘Pluralibacter gergoviae’, a bacterium that typically poses minimal risk for healthy individuals, but could result in infections for those who have health problems or weakened immune systems.
The company urged consumers not to use the recalled lotion as a precaution.
It said the scope of the contamination remains under investigation.
Yesterday, Higgs said while sales teams were combing through shelves with retailers, he advised consumers to check their bottles for the code: ZU-732811.
If the bottle carries the code, consumers should discard it.
Kao USA provided seven codes three-ounce bottles for recall and eight codes for their 10-ounce bottled, however, BWA was advised that affected lot in The Bahamas was limited to one code that can be found on the bottom of the bottle printed in black and white and begins with the prefix ‘ZU’.
“Kao USA Inc. will inform regulatory authorities of the issue and we are working with our partners on improved cleaning and sanitization practices so that similar issues can be prevented in the future,” read a statement from the company.
“Anyone who has product from a recalled lot should call the Kao USA Inc.”
This article has been updated to reflect the impacted code: ZU732-811.
