6 dead, 25 hospitalized in nationwide listeria outbreak linked to precooked pasta meals

Question

Six people died and 25 were hospitalized after eating recalled pre-cooked pasta meals. The food was said to have been contaminated with Listeria.

Answer 1

The claim that I will fact-check is: “Six people died and 25 were hospitalized after eating recalled pre-cooked pasta meals. The food was said to have been contaminated with Listeria.”

The original author who uploaded the claim already linked a website that is supported as a News Detective credible source, being NPR. I fact-check this claim to look at more details regarding this outbreak through another trusted source, as well as checking if the numbers in the original claim were accurate. The trusted source that I found was a New York Times article. Something that I thought was helpful that the article I found provided was a quote that said, “Pasta meals linked to a listeria outbreak were supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods and sold at major retailers nationwide, including Trader Joe’s, Albertsons and Sprouts Farmers Market, officials said.” They credit the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The New York Times article indeed also reported six people dying from this listeria outbreak. The meals that made people sick included fettuccine, linguine, and farfalle pasta, which were recalled between June and October. Twenty-seven people became sick, and twenty-five of them were hospitalized. Many of these people reported eating precooked meals. The cases were reported coming from California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. A food safety specialist who was interviewed reported that this is a fairly large and significant listeria outbreak. The C.D.C and the FDA have yet to find evidence of the specific listeria strain linked to the facility, Nate’s Fine Foods Inc. The article then explains what Listeria is and what the symptoms to look for are. Overall, this claim is true, and the numbers have been reported by two trustworthy sources.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/business/listeria-outbreak-trader-joes-kroger.html

Answer 2

The claim that I will fact-check is: “Six people died and 25 were hospitalized after eating recalled pre-cooked pasta meals. The food was said to have been contaminated with Listeria.”

The original author who uploaded the claim already linked a website that is supported as a News Detective credible source, being NPR. I chose to fact-check this claim to look at more details regarding this outbreak through another trusted source, as well as checking if the numbers in the original claim were accurate. The trusted source that I found was a New York Times article. Something that I thought was helpful that the article I found provided was a quote that said, “Pasta meals linked to a listeria outbreak were supplied by Nate’s Fine Foods and sold at major retailers nationwide, including Trader Joe’s, Albertsons and Sprouts Farmers Market, officials said.” They credit the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The New York Times article indeed also reported six people dying from this listeria outbreak. The meals that made people sick included fettuccine, linguine, and farfalle pasta, which were recalled between June and October. Twenty-seven people became sick, and twenty-five of them were hospitalized. Many of these people reported eating precooked meals. The cases were reported coming from California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. A food safety specialist who was interviewed reported that this is a fairly large and significant listeria outbreak. The C.D.C and the FDA have yet to find evidence of the specific listeria strain linked to the facility, Nate’s Fine Foods Inc. The article then explains what Listeria is and what the symptoms to look for are. Overall, this claim is true, and the numbers have been reported by two trustworthy sources.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/business/listeria-outbreak-trader-joes-kroger.html

Answer 3

This is true. As reported by CBS News, there has so far been 6 deaths and 27 reported illnesses across 18 different states. The listeria outbreak has been traced back to premade pasta meals at both Kroger and Trader Joes. Today reports that the recalls started back in June of this year, with the CDC noting that there has been 7 new illnesses and 2 more deaths since late September, including a pregnant fetal loss. The contamination traced back to Nate's Fine Foods, a supplier of the pasta meals. NPR states that since September, Nates has recalled multiple batches of their precooked pasta, and they are currently working with the FDA to determine if more recalls need to be made.