Class IOngoing · reported 2026-06-10

Hellas Meze Golden Smoked Whole Herring

Terra Medi LLC recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 10 June 2026 as Class I. The recall was initiated by the firm. Un-eviscerated fish may be contaminated with clostridium botulinum

The record

Every field below is published by the FDA in the openFDA food enforcement database. Check the FDA notice before acting on any recall: this page is a reading of the public record, not a substitute for it.

Product: Hellas Meze Golden Smoked Whole Herring
Reason for recall: Un-eviscerated fish may be contaminated with clostridium botulinum
Recalling firm: Terra Medi LLC
Firm location: Long Island City, New York, United States
Classification: Class I
Status: Ongoing
Recall number: H-0899-2026
Quantity: 20 cases (15 units per case)
Distribution: MA, NJ, IL, and NY
Initiated: 13 May 2026
Reported by FDA: 10 June 2026
Firm notified by: Two or more of the following: Email, Fax, Letter, Press Release, Telephone, Visit
Product codes: production date of 4/12/2025, best before 4/12/2026, L120425F54

Reading this record

Five things about this record are not in the record itself, and each one changes how it should be read.

Class I means the FDA judged a reasonable probability that the product would cause serious health consequences or death. The class is assigned by an agency health hazard evaluation under 21 CFR 7.41, not by the firm.
The firm started this recall itself. Most FDA food recalls are voluntary, and a recall is a food safety plan working rather than failing. The circumstances in which the agency asks for one instead are set out in 21 CFR 7.45.
This record is the only one the FDA opened for its recall event, so it covers a single product code.
This recall has no termination date on the record, so as published it had not been terminated under 21 CFR 7.55.
The distribution pattern names 4 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 4 weeks after the firm began the recall.
The product description on this record names no food this site can classify, so it appears on no food-type page. That is a limit of the description rather than of the recall.

Named in the distribution pattern: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, New York. Those pages count recalls by where the RECALLING FIRM sits, which is a different question from where this product went.

What this recall was for

Clostridium botulinum

Clostridium botulinum recalls are recalls of the process, not of a test result: the organism produces its toxin without oxygen, so a low-acid food in a sealed container that missed its scheduled process is recalled whether or not toxin was ever found.

A preventive controls plan covers a botulism risk 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 113: Thermally processed low-acid foods in hermetically sealed containers: the scheduled process, its establishment by a competent authority, and the records proving every container received it.
21 CFR 108.35: Emergency permit control: the registration and process filing a low-acid canned food processor must hold before it may operate.

All 2026 recalls · All FDA food recall data

21 CFR 113 is the clause behind this recall, and it is one somebody has to produce evidence for at their next audit. Krolda maps supplier documents to the clause they satisfy in FSSC 22000, IFS Food and 21 CFR 117, and routes the corrective action when the evidence is missing.

Early access

Recall records come from the openFDA food enforcement API, published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the public domain. Krolda adds the hazard classification and the clause mapping; neither is an FDA determination. Always check the FDA notice before acting on a recall.