Health Officials Warn Spinach In 2 Hello Fresh Meals May Be Contaminated With Deadly Listeria
Health officials at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a warning late Monday that certain meal kits from Hello Fresh may be contaminated with Listeria. The warning comes after discovering an issue with the spinach used by the subscription meal service that was sourced from the San Clemente, California-based supplier, FreshRealm. The USDA recommends discarding the kits immediately.
Which Meal Kits Contain The Spinach?
The meal kits that use the potentially contaminated spinach are 10.1-ounce containers of Ready Made Meals Cheesy Pulled Pork Pepper Pasta and 10-ounce containers of Ready Made Meals Unstuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey. The pork pepper pasta is identified with establishment number Est. 47718 and lot code 49107, or Est. 2937 and lot code 48840. The unstuffed peppers with ground turkey are identified with Est. P-47718 and lot codes 50069, 50073, or 50698.
What Is Listeria?
Listeria is a bacterium that gets into soil through the feces of animals, the use of organic fertilizers, or the decay of contaminated vegetation. Listeria can contaminate both plants and animals. Humans who eat contaminated food products may experience fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are approximately 1,600 cases of reported Listeria-related illnesses and 260 deaths from the bacteria each year.
Not FreshRealm’s First Listeria Issue In 2025
The spinach issue was not the first time that FreshRealm had issues with Listeria contamination this year. In September, the company had issues with pasta dishes shipped to Walmart. That strain of Listeria is linked back to an outbreak in June that has sickened more than 20 people and resulted in at least four deaths. Testing at FreshRealm at that time connected the issue with pasta supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California. Kroger, Giant Eagle, Albertson’s, and other retail outlets have recalled products due to that strain of Listeria.
Other Recent Recalls
There have been several other recent food recalls and warnings issued. Just days ago, there was a recall on Foster Poultry Farms’ chicken corn dog products. That followed a much larger recall on corn dogs from Hillshire Brands’ subsidiary, Tyson Foods. Both of these product recalls were due to wood shards found in the food. Last week, Tru Fru was forced to recall freeze-dried fruit products due to possible metal contamination. In September, there was also a major recall on Sprout Organics baby food pouches, which were found to have elevated levels of lead in them.
