Here’s What Businesses and Consumers Can Do To Prevent Listeria Outbreaks

A rash of high-profile Listeria recalls has many wondering what’s gone wrong in the United States food system. What appears to be a surge could actually be due to more effective contamination testing. Still, with Donald Trump set to return to the Oval Office, the threat of declining food safety is very real.

Recalls across the food industry

Listeria is a serious foodborne bacterial illness and recalls in 2024 included a wide range of products, from fresh produce like mushrooms and spinach to frozen foods, ready-to-eat proteins, peanuts and even dog food. In October alone, massive recalls were issued for frozen waffles and pre-cooked meat products.

Recalled waffles were sold under 25 different brand names at retailers like Target, Walmart and Publix. All of the affected brands were supplied by TreeHouse Foods. Meanwhile, nearly 12 million pounds of pre-cooked meat and poultry products were recalled by BrucePac, which supplies retail and food service outlets, including schools.

Pre-cooked proteins took another, albeit much smaller, hit in November, with just over 4,500 pounds recalled by Yu Shang Food Inc. for potential Listeria contamination. Although the recalled amount wasn’t as extensive as BrucePac’s, the foods were distributed across the country.

One of the largest outbreaks was connected to Boar’s Head deli meat. It resulted in 59 hospitalizations and 10 deaths, according to the most recent update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Issues at the since-closed plant in Jarratt, Virginia, go back to 2022, with multiple citations for non-compliance issued by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Do more recalls mean more Listeria, or better detection?

Excessive as these recalls appear, Listeria outbreaks are not new to the food system and previous years have seen even higher numbers, Rena Steinzor, who teaches food safety law at the University of Maryland and has testified on the economic impacts of such regulations for congress, told TriplePundit. 

Listeria recalls vary greatly from year to year, from less than 83,000 pounds of food in the six recalls reported by the Department of Agriculture in 2015, to over 47 million pounds from 11 recalls in 2016. On average, 1,600 people become infected and 260 die from the bacteria annually, according to the CDC. And Listeria outbreaks are not limited to food processing plants. Improper food handling can encourage the pathogen to grow or spread after foods are brought home.

Overall, recalls have increased 20 percent from 2020 to 2023, including not just foodborne illnesses like Listeria and Salmonella but also other issues like foreign objects and unlisted allergens. The fact that there haven’t been more deaths related to recent Listeria recalls suggests that, in many instances, contamination may have been caught before it could cause more significant harm.

“The number of recalls that we’re seeing is really a sign that our public health and regulatory system is more robust,” Craig Hedberg, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, recently told Marketplace.

The danger of deregulation and lack of enforcement

All of this should bring a heavy pause to the number of Listeria-related recalls reported by the USDA in 2020, which was zero. Listeria didn’t disappear that year, but compliance and enforcement actions from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decreased significantly throughout the first Trump presidency. That doesn’t bode well for the next four years.

“It’s not so much about deregulation as adequate funding for enforcement,” Steinzor told 3p. “I'm not saying that [the administration] didn't do that, but what I'm emphasizing — and this is not something that you hear often enough — is that if you have a law on the books and you don't enforce it, you might as well not bother having it.”

Not only did the first Trump administration propose massive cuts to the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, which are the two agencies charged with overseeing food safety in the U.S., but unqualified leadership appointments also undermined their work. 

The administration also worked to roll back regulations meant to ensure food and worker safety. That included rule changes to “modernize swine inspection”, which reduced the total number of Department of Agriculture inspectors in processing plants by roughly 40 percent. In-house employees were to take over those remaining inspection duties. 

What can consumers do?

As it stands now, “Neither agency is particularly good at enforcement,” Steinzor said. But with attacks on funding, science and reasonable regulation likely as Trump retakes the White House, consumers may want to reconsider some of their food choices to protect themselves and their families — especially with processed foods.

Steinzor said she’s buying raw meat and cooking it from scratch following the Boar’s Head outbreak. “If you get a Listeria infection, you have to be hospitalized, and it's horrible. It's a misery,” she said. “If you buy fresh stuff and you cook it, you can protect yourself. But that's not practical for a lot of families.”

Deli meats are particularly susceptible to Listeria because the pathogen continues to grow even when food is refrigerated. While cooking deli meat until it is steaming — until it reaches 165 degrees throughout) — does kill Listeria, doing so isn’t realistic for packed lunches and won’t work for most families. 

And not everything that could harbor Listeria can be cooked. One of the worst outbreaks in U.S. history occurred in cantaloupes. With so many factors, there’s only so much that consumers can do to avoid foodborne illnesses. 

What can businesses do?

Weakened oversight doesn’t just put consumers at risk, businesses suffer too. Even under regular conditions, producers shouldn’t rely on government agencies alone to correct their violations. They should be proactive about protecting their customers and their reputation. 

“There have been proposals for businesses to hire third-party, reputable firms to go out and inspect their suppliers,” Steinzor said. Nestle once saved itself from a Salmonella outbreak by sending a crew to test suppliers. In doing so, it stopped using a peanut paste producer that was operating with a leaky roof, pest infestations and a broken roaster before issues arose with its products. But that wasn’t the case for all companies that worked with the supplier. 

“The roaster, of course, is the key thing that sterilizes the peanuts and gets rid of the salmonella, so [the supplier] got a positive salmonella test and shipped the peanut paste out anyway,” she said. “And many people got ill and died.”

The outbreak led to criminal charges, with the head of the company sentenced to about 30 years in prison, Steinzor said.

“[Nestle] didn't want to count on the state government, which in fact, had visited the plant something like six times and had never cracked down,” she said. “It's a smart thing to do.”

Such preemptive action from food packers and producers will likely become even more important to protect against outbreaks and potential lawsuits going forward.