Why Listeria Seems to Be Everywhere Now, According to Food Safety Experts

From Trader Joe’s to Costco, multiple brands have voluntarily recalled products due to concerns of Listeria contamination in recent months. 

These headlines might make you anxious about what is safe to eat. But are there actually more Listeria-linked outbreaks and food recalls happening? We talked to experts and looked at the data to see if cases are increasing and the potential reasons behind these recalls. 

Why Are We Seeing More Listeria Recalls Lately?

There appears to be no drastic increase in the number of total recalls related to Listeria in 2024, said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America.

Last year, the consumer-interest group U.S PIRG (Public Interest Research Groups) released a report that found 47 of the food recalls and alerts in 2023 were due to Listeria, compared to 43 in 2022 and 56 in 2019.

However, the size of high-profile recalls and the effects of the contamination have been far-reaching. 

Recent recalls from just two companies, Boar’s Head and BrucePac, have led to over 18 million pounds of deli meats being recalled, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is far larger than in 2023, when the USDA listed just over 78,000 pounds of recalled foods linked to Listeria contamination. Food recalls listed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not list the amount of pounds recalled.

The outbreak linked to Boar’s Head has affected 59 people in 19 states and has been linked to 10 deaths.

“That’s the worst outbreak that we have had in terms of mortality since 2011 when a Listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe killed 33 people. We certainly have not conquered microbiological food-borne illness,” Gremillion said.

Improved tools for detecting outbreaks may also explain why there have been more recalls.

It used to be extremely difficult to find an outbreak if it impacted just a few people in multiple states, said William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Now, genetic testing of bacterial samples can help epidemiologists figure out if the same strain of bacteria is making people sick in multiple states.

Public health authorities can submit “molecular fingerprinting” from the bacteria to the CDC,” Schaffner explained. As a result, CDC officials can figure out if genetically similar bacteria are infecting people, which would indicate they have been exposed to the same source of the bacteria.

“We’re actually finding more of these low incidence, wide, geographically distributed outbreaks than we ever did before," he said.

Listeria Contamination Can Spread Quickly

A challenge for food safety officials is that a single batch of contaminated food can now spread quickly across the nation. 

In October, Oklahoma-based BrucePac announced a voluntary recall of over 11 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. Those products were used in everything from Trader Joe’s lemon chicken and arugula salad to Costco’s mini chicken burritos. Currently, no illnesses or deaths have been reported in relation to this recall. 

Gremillion said these types of large recalls show how important it is to have fully staffed agencies to ensure the contaminated products can be taken out of the food supply quickly.

“You can have this scale effect where there’s lots of contaminated food all across the system,” Gremillion said. “That’s where [having] effective traceability regime and regulatory agencies that are ready to step in and conduct a recall and get that food off the market is so important.”

Fixing the Food Safety System

In 2024, only 57% of Americans said they have faith in the federal government’s ability to safeguard the food system, according to a Gallup poll. This is down 11% from 2019.

Food safety in the U.S. is overseen by either the USDA or the FDA. The USDA oversees regulating meat and poultry, processed egg products, and catfish, while the FDA is responsible for almost all other foods and fresh eggs.

The USDA has struggled to “recruit and retain” inspectors as well. In its 2025 budget summary, the agency said it’s taking steps to address this problem, including offering a $5,000 signing bonus, among other benefits. Despite these challenges, a spokesperson for the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said they still have “sufficient inspection personnel,” with around 7,000 inspectors working in plants.

The USDA has also faced scrutiny after reducing routine microbiological testing this year. The bacteria that led to the BrucePac recall was discovered as part of this routine FSIS testing.

In a statement to Verywell, the USDA said they plan to decrease microbiological samples from 155,222 in 2023 to 90,152 in 2024. However, the amount of analytes or chemical substances tested from these samples has actually increased from 688,425 to 691,705.

“In modifying sampling each year, FSIS’ goal is to collect the most actionable data that will have the greatest public health impact,” an FSIS spokesperson told Verywell.

The FDA has also been underfunded under both Democratic and Republican administrations, said Rena Steinzor, JD, emerita professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. 

In the last 13 years, the FDA has issued a mandatory food recall just three times, according to U.S. PIRG.

“The FDA is ineffective in enforcing the law,” Steinzor said, explaining that much of the agency is focused on drug regulation. “It’s a constant struggle for them. They’ve always been behind on food, and they generally have a pretty bad reputation in terms of enforcement.”

In October, the FDA announced they have implemented a reorganization of its Human Foods Program that will “modernize and strengthen the entire agency to work more cohesively and collaboratively.” 

“Outbreak response is a high priority area for FDA,” an FDA spokesperson told Verywell in an email. “Continued investments are needed to support the extensive collaboration with our regulatory partners that is necessary for effective outbreak response as well as our expanded response needs that come with the increasing ability to detect signals and outbreaks with technological advancements, such as whole genome sequencing.”