26 replies to this topic

[Tony-C]

Hi Everyone,

 

FreshRealm Recalls Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Products Due to Possible Listeria Contamination

 

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2025 – FreshRealm establishments in San Clemente, Calif., Montezuma, Ga., and Indianapolis, Ind., are recalling chicken fettuccine alfredo products that may be adulterated with an outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. Out of an abundance of caution, the company is voluntarily recalling all products produced prior to June 17, 2025, that are available in commerce under the following brand names.

 

The following ready-to-eat products were shipped to Kroger and Walmart retail locations nationwide [view labels]:   

32.8-oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/27/25 or prior.

12.3 oz. tray packages containing “MARKETSIDE GRILLED CHICKEN ALFREDO WITH FETTUCCINE Tender Pasta with Creamy Alfredo Sauce, White Meat Chicken, Broccoli and Shaved Parmesan Cheese” with best-by date 06/26/25 or prior.

12.5 oz. tray packages containing “HOME CHEF Heat & Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with pasta, grilled white meat chicken, and Parmesan cheese” with best-by date 06/19/25 or prior.                              

 

The products bear the USDA mark of inspection on the product label as well as establishment numbers “EST. P-50784,” “EST. P-47770,” or “EST. P-47718” printed on the side of the packaging.

 

FSIS and public health partners are investigating an outbreak of Lm that currently includes 17 ill people in 13 states. As of June 17, 2025, there have been three reported deaths and one fetal loss associated with this outbreak.

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: June 18, 2025: FSIS and its public health partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are investigating the outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to this recall. Both partners issued alerts related to this outbreak. For more details, view the CDC Food Safety Alert, Listeria Outbreak Linked to Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Meals, and the FDA Advisory, Outbreak Investigation of Listeria monocytogenes: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Meals (June 2025).

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

I do love these pronouncements.  "Outbreak strain" yet it's "out of an abundance of caution"?

 

People eat chicken alfredo cold?  Bizarre hodge podge dish anyway to be honest...

[TimG]

Yeah, I've been watching the FDA emails on this one for a few days now. Ugh..I missed this part though "one fetal loss"

Nothing says our jobs are pretty important like phrases like that..

 

[kfromNE]

I do love these pronouncements.  "Outbreak strain" yet it's "out of an abundance of caution"?

 

People eat chicken alfredo cold?  Bizarre hodge podge dish anyway to be honest...

 

They called it a RTE product. It's a microwaved product so people may have heated it up but not overly hot. Also don't underestimate what people will eat cold or not. 

 

Fettucine Alfredo w/ chicken - a common dish in the USA. 

[TimG]

 

 

Fettucine Alfredo w/ chicken - a common dish in the USA. 

Have some home made in the fridge right now. With a slice of toasty garlic bread, DELICIOUS!!

Even the frozen tv dinner style will do in a pinch. Is it not very popular in the UK? You guys have a lot of curry over there; we need more of that over here.

[MDaleDDF]

Also delicious with blackened shrimp.....

I do like curry.   When I lived in CH the woman I lived with made curry risotto all the time.   It was amazing.

[BM5]

"They called it a RTE product."

 

Front of pack evidence suggests it's Ready to Heat.

[GMO]

"They called it a RTE product."

 

Front of pack evidence suggests it's Ready to Heat.

 

Ah.  Fair enough.  People are rubbish at reheating properly and licking spoons etc when you stir the product though.

 

 

Have some home made in the fridge right now. With a slice of toasty garlic bread, DELICIOUS!!

Even the frozen tv dinner style will do in a pinch. Is it not very popular in the UK? You guys have a lot of curry over there; we need more of that over here.

 

No not at all.  To be honest, while pasta ready meals are big sellers here, they're not as big as curry as you say but I'm always perplexed why they are big sellers when it's easy to make a decent pasta dish with low skill and at low cost.

 

But while some people are aware of alfredo, it's not a big seller at all and might not even be called Alfredo.  This is probably the closest. 

 

M&S Chicken & Parmesan Fettuccine | Ocado

 

I think it's somewhat an American invention or twist.  Like spaghetti and meatballs in the US or chicken tikka masala or baltis in the UK.

[TimG]

I very rarely eat a frozen or premade dinner, maybe once or twice a month and that's being generous. If I see something I can stomach and it's on sale, I'll snag a couple of them and keep them in the freezer.

I never temp it. I have a very nice thermometer, and it gets used often when cooking meats. But I've never thought to temp the meat in my premade meals. A lot of them are in sauce (Alfredo, pastas, chicken pot pie) and I guess I just assumed if the sauce is hot, the meat is up to temp. I will be temping my meat from here on out..it seems like such a simple thing I'm not sure why I haven't been.

[kfromNE]

I others have said - I buy frozen meals when they are on sale. I keep a few at work just in case I didn't bring anything. For alfredo, many of the sauces are too rich for me. I prefer to make my own lighter version. 

 

GMO - what you showed - same thing. We say alfredo vs cream sauce. Not sure why. 

Edited by kfromNE, 19 June 2025 - 01:06 PM.

[G M]

At this point it seems like anyone involved in any ready-to-heat product should probably be worried about being next on the "consumers are too dumb to cook your product before eating it" list.

[kconf]

I think RTE term is kind of misleading. People have a tendency to ignore instructions on so called prepped frozen meals. Consumers take "warm my food" approach whereas manufactures are telling you to "heat to kill microbes" and to avoid potentially harmful raw food. Many are guilty of it. 

[Killian]

It doesn't really feel fair to me to say the consumers are too dumb for not properly heating a product which is ostensibly fully cooked. I understand that following the instructions on the packaging should have limited or eliminated the risk from listeria in this case, but I also believe that we have an obligation to account for end consumer product abuses which can be easily anticipated.

 

To me, microwaving something (which appears to only need to be reheated) to a palatable temperature and eating it does not make someone dumb. Neither does licking a fork used to pierce film or stir during the microwaving process. These aren't the best practices, but they are pretty easily anticipatable.

 

Sorry, but it just doesn't sit right with me to call people who have been killed or made ill dumb, it feels like a cynical abdication of responsibility.

[kconf]

I agree, Killian. Otherwise we would need prescriptions to buy groceries. lol

[Tony-C]

As per Killian's post: Ready-to-heat food products are meant to be safe to be consumed without the need for a full cook; the reheating of the product is intended to make it more palatable and is not a microbiological kill step.

 

I think with some products you could build in a margin in the reheating so that the products get a 'zapping' in the microwave to the equivalent of 70°C for 2 minutes which is supposed to typically give a 6 log reduction in Listeria monocytogenes. With pasta/cream it is easy to overcook and that ruins the quality/taste so perhaps that is not really an option with these products.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Edited by Tony-C, Yesterday, 03:08 AM.

[GMO]

Agree.  At least in the UK, ready to reheat is near requirements for ready to eat.  Microwaves reduce intensity over time and no consumer will check it.  Virtually no consumer uses a temperature probe unless they work in the food industry.  Also things like stirring part way and licking the spoon you stirred with aren't uncommon as is not following the instructions at all. 

 

"Says 3 minutes stirring half way and stand for 2 minutes?  Meh!"

 

It's a requirement of HACCP to consider consumer use and likely misuse.  Not fully reheating a ready to reheat meal is likely misuse.  We do have ready to cook in the UK but these are normally obviously raw like marinated raw meats so you'd hope more likely to have consumer awareness of risk.

[MDaleDDF]

I agree, Killian. Otherwise we would need prescriptions to buy groceries. lol

I do and I don't.   The pasta example I agree, but if someone wants to eat raw cookie dough, it's on them.

 

And as far as the stupidity percentage of the general population, I wish I could be more positive, but unfortunately I live amongst them, and the evidence seems to point to low numbers.    Lol.

Edited by MDaleDDF, Yesterday, 11:06 AM.

[kfromNE]

The USDA has different product categorizations. https://www.fsis.usd...egorization.pdf

 

Two of them being. 

 

Fully cooked, not shelf stable. These products meet the definition of RTE. 

 

Heat treated but not fully cooked - not shelf stable. This would be a Non-RTE item. 

 

My guess - this product was considered a fully cooked, not shelf stable item. So heating instructions but not cooking instructions. 

[Seathalos]

Sorry, but it just doesn't sit right with me to call people who have been killed or made ill dumb, it feels like a cynical abdication of responsibility.

 

We are in the profession of prevention, it is part of our job to make sure that people have all the information they need to properly and safely prepare their RTE meals. Yes it might look "dumb" to us that people are liking preparation utensils (keep in mind it is pretty common practice at home to "lick the spoon") or only heating it to a palatable temp. BUT, we have years of experience and data that we pull from that most of the population does not have this benefit. 

 

These issues aren't because people are too "stupid" but that we are not actually educating people on the importance of these issues. (and honestly it is hard for people to have a desire to learn these things when they have more pressing issues that they have to deal with)

[Killian]

I do and I don't.   The pasta example I agree, but if someone wants to eat raw cookie dough, it's on them.

 

And as far as the stupidity percentage of the general population, I wish I could be more positive, but unfortunately I live amongst them, and the evidence seems to point to low numbers.    Lol.

 

 

I think cookie dough is a really fascinating illustration of this whole concept, because misuse by consumers was/is prolific enough that the industry adapted to it and we ended up with RTE dough advertised like in the attachments. I'd love to hear from someone who was involved in that process.

 

I do generally agree though that if the risk should be expected to be known by the consumer then the onus is on them to ensure the food is made safe before consumption. I also wonder whether people who have grown up with products like the attached rate the risk of eating raw cookie dough compared to those who grew up knowing there was an inherent risk (but probably did it anyway).

Attached Files

•  Cookie Dough 1.jpg   13.61KB   0 downloads
•  Cookie Dough 2.jpg   8.18KB   0 downloads

Edited by Killian, Yesterday, 04:59 PM.

[TimG]

I grew up licking the spoon from cake batter (made with egg), eating raw cookie dough (from homemade cookies), hell I even went through a 'get fit' stage where I was eating raw eggs for protein (spoiler alert, I was still fat).

I don't think food safety was common knowledge then, at least not in poorer areas where I grew up. Hell, in middle school we had one year where they tried a 'home ec' class, and the TEACHER was telling us to taste the cookie dough to see if it needed salt.

 

 

When my girlfriend makes cookies now (which is rare) I still have tasted them raw, even knowing what I know. Sometimes I wonder how we as humans have survived for so long  .

[Seathalos]

Sometimes I wonder how we as humans have survived for so long  .

We are surprisingly resilient, honestly it is something I think about regularly. The amount of "deadly until processed" foods we have had since the start of civilization never ceases to amaze me

[seanpaulrader]

Disregarding the discussion about the intelligence of consumers...

 

One thing that strikes me as interesting with this recall is that it is from several different locations. If there was an environmental or sanitation issue, I would expect the recall to be from one location only. Since the recall covers products made at 3 locations I wonder if there was an ingredient they got from another supplier that is the root cause of the contamination.

[MDaleDDF]

When my girlfriend makes cookies now (which is rare) I still have tasted them raw, even knowing what I know. Sometimes I wonder how we as humans have survived for so long  .

I must admit I eat instant cream of wheat in the mornings sometimes, and instead of boiling the water as the package says to do, I just pull hot water from the instantaneous button on the coffee machine because it's quick and easy.

The lab I send samples to for quarterly testing once emailed me back that the whole lab loves when I test brownie mix because they mix it up and eat the batter.   I told them don't do that!   It's non RTE, it can make you sick!    And a lab full of scientists replied "Eh, it's worth a little diarrhea"....... lol.    So if smart people can't be expected to even follow the rules, where does that leave us?!?!?!??!

[Scampi]

 

When my girlfriend makes cookies now (which is rare) I still have tasted them raw, even knowing what I know. Sometimes I wonder how we as humans have survived for so long  .

The difference is SCALE

 

Fields where wheat is grown (as an example) never ever used to have raw manure spread on them, now it happens all the time in order to produce enough

 

I too licked the spoon, no longer

 

And when you know better, you do better