A listeria outbreak with deaths involves Walmart, Kroger and Trader Joe’s
Federal investigation of a listeria outbreak that traced back to chicken alfredo pasta meals sold at Walmart and Kroger has three more people sickened and another death, the FDA and CDC said.
And, the USDA added a Trader Joe’s ready-to-eat chicken alfredo pasta dish to a public health alert Friday.
What chicken alfredo pasta dishes are involved in this?
The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service issued a public health alert Thursday about a Walmart Marketside chicken alfredo ready-to-eat meal and added one from Trader Joe’s on Friday.
Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce, best by dates of Sept. 22, 24, 25, 29, 30 and Oct. 1. The establishment number in the USDA inspection mark will be either 50784 or 47718. Those are, respectively, the San Clemente, California, and Indianapolis manufacturing centers for FreshRealm.
Trader Joe’s Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettucine Alfredo, best by dates of Sept. 20, Sept. 24 and Sept. 27 and establishment number P-45288 in the USDA inspection mark.
For the dishes past their best by date, there’s always the concern they’re in consumers’ freezers.
Questions about the alert can be directed to Roseville, California’s Nate’s Fine Foods, 916-677-7303, from noon to 7 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
Back in June, FreshRealm recalled chicken Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettucine and Kroger’s Home Chef Heat & Eat Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo in connection with the outbreak.
READ MORE: Walmart and Kroger chicken meals recalled after listeria outbreak deaths
“FreshRealm detected listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in packaged, cooked pasta from one of our ingredient suppliers during testing under our food safety program,” a FreshRealm spokesperson emailed the Miami Herald. “We promptly notified the USDA and FDA as well as our supplier and impacted customers. Testing found a match between the Lm strain in the pasta used in a ready-to-eat linguine with beef meatballs and marinara sauce meal and the Lm strain identified with the outbreak the CDC has been investigating.
“In an abundance of caution and to protect public health, FreshRealm recalled ready-to-eat fettuccine chicken alfredo products in June,” the statement continued. “We have long maintained the source of the listeria was likely an ingredient supplied by a third party. The recent findings confirm this.”
What’s the latest on the listeria outbreak?
Since the June update on the outbreak, the documented illnesses are up to 20 with 19 hospitalizations and four deaths. Because some people suffer through their listeria or salmonalla infections without receiving medical attention, the actual number of people sickened in those outbreaks usually is undercounted.
The most people documented are in Texas (three). California, Louisiana and Michigan have two each. States with one person are Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Utah and Virginia.
The deaths, one of which was a fetus, were in Texas, Illinois, Michigan, and Utah.
What’s listeria?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say listeria hits about 1,250 people in the United States annually and kills about 172.
Newborns and people over 65 are most likely to get the worst of listeria’s affects. Most people suffer muscle aches, headaches, balance problems, fatigue and high fevers. In pregnant women, the high fevers can result in stillbirths and miscarriages.
In this week’s Health and Human Services and FDA announcement concerning acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and generic versions, the agencies noted “high fevers in pregnant women can pose a risk to their children” and “acetaminophen is the only over the counter drug approved for treating fevers during pregnancy.”
They also admitted, “while an association between acetaminophen and neurological conditions (autism, ADHD) has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 7:26 AM with the headline "A listeria outbreak with deaths involves Walmart, Kroger and Trader Joe’s."
