FRESH HELL

Urgent Listeria Warning Issued for HelloFresh Goods by USDA

It is the latest in an expanding web of cases stemming from a single producer.

HelloFresh customers have been warned to steer clear of two of its ready meals by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said Monday that Listeria has been detected in dishes containing spinach, with more discoveries expected. It identified “10.1-oz. containers of HelloFresh Ready Made Meals Cheesy Pulled Pork Pepper Pasta” and “10-oz. containers of HelloFresh Ready-Made Meals Unstuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey.” The goods are supplied by California-based producer FreshRealm, which contacted the FSIS to report the outbreak. Last month, the firm was also connected to listeria in linguine sold in Walmart. The bacteria matched those found in a June outbreak in dishes of chicken fettuccine alfredo. It claimed the lives of four people and made a further 20 sick. ABC writes that FreshRealm bosses said the strain detected in the outbreak stemmed from “pasta made and supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California.” In a statement, Nate’s said it was “voluntarily recalling select products after being notified of a potential link to a multi-state outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes.” In a statement made to the Daily Beast, a FreshRealm spokesperson said it had “detected Listeria in individually quick-frozen spinach that it uses in prepared meals.” They conducted “whole genome sequencing of spinach ingredient samples and the Listeria strain does not match the outbreak first reported in June.”