Four deaths and 19 hospitalisations have been recorded in a US listeria outbreak linked to prepared pasta meals.
Nate’s Fine Foods has been identified as the B2B supplier of the affected pasta by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which said in a statement that the company recalled certain lots of pre-cooked pasta on 25 September.
The recall included fettucine, linguine, and farfalle (bowtie) and was triggered after a sample of linguine pasta collected and tested by US food business FreshRealm, a customer of Nate’s Fine Foods, tested positive for listeria monocytogenes.
A number of FreshRealm meals were consequently recalled under its Marketside brand carrying select use by dates: Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine and Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine.
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Home Chef Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo was also listed by the FDA in the recall, a brand owned by Kroger.
The FDA also pointed to another recall by retailer Albertsons linked to the same supplier, California-based Nate’s Fine Foods.
Albertsons said in a statement on 29 September that the recall was prompted by Fresh Creative Foods, a division of Reser’s Fine Foods, due to the possible presence of listeria.
The retailer voluntarily recalled five deli meals supplied by Fresh Creative Foods because they reportedly contained a recalled bowtie pasta ingredient from Nate’s Fine Foods.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a unit of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), then updated its health alert on 26 September to a pasta meal from Trader Joe’s, again because of the potential presence of listeria. The product was specified as Trader Joe’s Cajun-style blackened chicken breast fettucine alfredo.
Just Food has asked Nate’s Fine Foods for an update on the recall and the current status of events.
The FDA, USDA FSIS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are working with state and local officials in an investigation of illnesses in the “multistate outbreak” of listeria linked to prepared pasta meals.
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By GlobalDataAs of 25 September, 20 infections had been reported across 15 states, according to the FDA. Of 13 people interviewed, seven said they had eaten pre-cooked meals, and four specifically reported chicken fettuccine alfredo.
The FDA added that 19 poeple have been hospitalised and four deaths reported., while one illness occurred in a pregnant mother and resulted in a foetal loss.
FreshRealm said in a statement provided to Just Food: “Whole genome sequencing confirmed what we had long suspected: the listeria outbreak strain traced back to an ingredient supplied by a third party. We now know the source was cooked pasta.
“At FreshRealm, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our customers. We have been relentless in our approach to get to the bottom of this and we now have an answer.”
In other instances away from the reported pasta meals outbreak, an infant had died and nine others were hospitalised in a multi-state listeria outbreak in November linked to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products of US-based Yu Shang Food.
A month earlier, TreeHouse Foods expanded a recall linked to the potential presence of listeria to encompass “all products” manufactured at a facility in Ontario, Canada.
During the same month, BrucePac also initiated a recall of approximately 9.9 million pounds of products due to a listeria outbreak.
