Listeria monocytogenes in FDA food recalls

7,493 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 name Listeria contamination. That is 25.5% of every food recall the agency has reported, and 6,142 of them are Class I. Data last updated 2 September 2026.

Records of 29,386

7,493

Share of all recalls

25.5%

Class I of 7,493

6,142

Reported between

2012 to 2026

What is different about these records

By product, Listeria monocytogenes is weighted toward ice cream and frozen desserts: 13.5% of the records here against 5.9% across the corpus.

Recalls involving listeria monocytogenes are more often the serious kind: 82% are Class I, where the FDA judges there is a reasonable probability of serious health consequences, against 44% of all records.

A single recall here covers far more records than usual: 8.3 enforcement records per FDA event, against 3.7 across the corpus. The agency opens one record per product code, so this is a sign of broad product lines rather than of repeated failures.

Who got ill

Between 2012 and 2023 the CDC recorded 102 foodborne outbreaks attributed to Listeria monocytogenes. That is 1.1% of the 9,038 foodborne outbreaks in the dataset, and 47.7% of the 264 deaths in it.

Of the 894 people reported ill, 87.8% were hospitalised and 14.1% died, against 7.6% and 0.2% across every foodborne outbreak CDC holds. How much of the recall corpus a hazard accounts for and how much of the harm it accounts for are two different numbers.

What the FDA says

What Listeria monocytogenes means in a recall record

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that grows at refrigeration temperature, which is why it dominates recalls of ready-to-eat foods that are never cooked again before they are eaten.

The firm with the most records of this kind is Garden-Fresh Foods, Inc., with 632. A high count usually reflects one event split across many product codes rather than many separate failures, which is why the table below is ordered by date rather than by firm.

The clause this maps to

A preventive controls plan covers Listeria contamination under the clauses below. This is where the control belongs, not a finding against any firm named on this page: a recall record states a reason, and most of these recalls were initiated by the firm itself.

21 CFR 117.135(c)(3)

Sanitation controls: the controls on cleaning food-contact surfaces and on preventing cross-contact and cross-contamination from insanitary objects, people and equipment.

21 CFR 117.165(a)(3)

Environmental monitoring: testing the processing environment for an environmental pathogen, required when a ready-to-eat food is exposed to the environment before packaging.

21 CFR 117.150

Corrective actions: what a facility does when a preventive control was not properly implemented, including identifying and correcting the problem and evaluating the food for safety.

By year

Counts are by the date the FDA reported the enforcement action. That date runs behind the date a firm started a recall, so the most recent year is always partial.

Firms with the most records

A firm appears here because it reported recalls, which is what a working recall procedure produces. A high count frequently reflects a single event split across many product codes rather than many separate failures.

• Garden-Fresh Foods, Inc.632
• FRESH IDEATION FOOD GROUP, LLC dba Fresh Creative Cuisine409
• Blue Bell Creameries, L.P.290
• Reser's Fine Foods, Inc.249
• Working Cow Homemade Inc.175
• Whole Foods Market157
• Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc146
• Spartan Central Kitchen139
• Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams LLC134
• SunBurst Foods, Inc.121
• Treehouse Foods120
• Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream117

Where the recalling firms are

The state is the location of the recalling firm, not where the product was sold. Distribution is recorded separately on each record.

• California1,009
• Wisconsin735
• Texas651
• Washington562
• Maryland542
• New York497
• Ohio446
• Florida435
• Michigan396
• Illinois351
• Oregon303
• North Carolina191

Most recently reported

Questions

How many FDA food recalls involve listeria monocytogenes?

7,493 of the 29,386 FDA food recall records published since 2012 name Listeria contamination, which is 25.5% of all of them. 6,142 are Class I, the class the FDA uses when there is a reasonable probability of serious health consequences or death.

What is Listeria monocytogenes?

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that grows at refrigeration temperature, which is why it dominates recalls of ready-to-eat foods that are never cooked again before they are eaten.

Which clause covers Listeria contamination?

A preventive controls plan under 21 CFR 117 covers Listeria contamination under 21 CFR 117.135(c)(3), 21 CFR 117.165(a)(3), 21 CFR 117.150. Sanitation controls: the controls on cleaning food-contact surfaces and on preventing cross-contact and cross-contamination from insanitary objects, people and equipment. This is where the control belongs; a recall record states a reason rather than a regulatory finding, and most FDA food recalls are initiated by the firm itself.

All FDA food recall data