The U.S. Department of Agriculture is warning consumers not to eat certain ready-to-eat meatball pasta meals sold at Walmart stores because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria previously linked to a deadly outbreak tied to pre-made chicken fettuccine Alfredo meals.
In an announcement Thursday, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert for Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce sold in refrigerated 12-ounce clear plastic trays. The products have best-by dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 1 and may still be in consumers’ refrigerators.
The affected meals contain the establishment numbers “EST. 50784” and “EST. 47718” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the label. They were sent to Walmart stores nationwide.
U.S. Agriculture Department via AP 
“The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority. We have removed this product from our impacted stores and we are working with the supplier to investigate,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News on Friday.
There have been no reported illness complaints for the product in question, and consumers should discard the meals if they have them and can receive a full refund at any Walmart store.
No recall has been issued, but FreshRealm, a large food producer that distributed the products, said they advised Walmart this week to pull the meals from store shelves. Additional products may be identified, according to the FSIS. Walmart officials said they put a stop to sales and removed the products from stores.
The meals may be contaminated with the same strain of listeria that caused an outbreak tied to chicken fettuccine Alfredo meals sold at Walmart and Kroger stores. Four people were killed and at least 20 were sickened in the outbreak, which federal health officials updated on Friday evening. The outbreak led to a large recall this summer.
“FreshRealm held beef meatball marinara linguine meals after they tested positive for the outbreak strain,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its update Friday. “Pasta that went into the beef meatball marinara linguine meals has tested positive for Listeria, but additional information is pending to determine if the samples taken from the pre-cooked pasta is the same strain making people sick. Do not eat affected foods, return them or throw them out.”
FreshRealm conducted tests that detected the listeria in linguine used in the meatball dish, company officials said. The strain matched the listeria identified in the chicken fettuccine Alfredo outbreak, the company said.
“We have long maintained that the source of the listeria was likely an ingredient supplied by a third party,” the company said in a statement.
The pasta came from Nate’s Fine Foods of Roseville, California. The company did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems, and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, tiredness, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions, according to the CDC.
About 1,600 people get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, the CDC says. Federal officials in December said they were revamping protocols to prevent listeria infections after several high-profile outbreaks, including one linked to Boar’s Head deli meats that led to 10 deaths and more than 60 illnesses last year.
