Listeria Outbreak Leads CA Company To Pull Food From Shelves: LIST

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Southern California food company known for supplying break rooms and cafeterias across the West Coast with ready-to-eat sandwiches and vending machine snack items, is recalling its foods due to possible listeria contamination, the company announced Monday.

Fresh & Ready Foods initiated the voluntary recall affecting foods distributed between April 18 and April 28 in vending machines and break room areas in offices, medical buildings and healthcare facilities across Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington. The recalled items have 'use-by' dates from Aprill 22 to May 19.

The company makes turkey and egg salad sandwiches, breakfast foods, tuna pasta, and street corn sold under brand names including Fresh & Ready Foods, City Point Market Fresh Food to Go, and Fresh Take Crave Away.

According to Fresh & Ready Foods, an FDA inspection found Listeria monocytogenes on a piece of equipment. The equipment has been removed as a precaution, and now the company is recalling the food made by the contaminated equipment.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the potentially contaminated food items, but Listeria can cause life-threatening illness, the company claimed in a written statement.

"This action is being taken as a precautionary measure to ensure the continued safety of our consumers," Fresh & Ready Foods announced Saturday.

According to the FDA, Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, a Listeria monocytogenes infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women, the FDA warned.

In 2024, the CDC found that at least eight people were sickened in a Listeria outbreak in California, The Los Angeles Times reported. Investigators did not identify the source last year but found that some of the sickened people had been hospitalized at facilities serving Fresh & Ready Foods, according to the newspaper.

The listeria found by inspectors on the Fresh & Ready equipment this year matched the strain of listeria that caused the outbreak last year, the Times reported.

SEE ALSO:

• 1 In CA Dead, 8 Sickened: Listeria-Tainted Dairy Product Recalled
• CA Food Company Put Customers' Lives At Risk In Deadly Outbreak: Federal Authorities

The complete list of recalled itesm are:

Consumers who have the recalled foods are urged to discard any remaining product immediately. Consumers may contact Fresh & Ready Foods at RecallConcern@HotLineGlobal.com or by calling 1-855-424-8390 with questions related to the recall or to request a refund.