13 Of The Biggest Frozen Food Recalls Of All Time

Yahoo

2 days ago

While you may have thought frozen foods were safer, it turns out that some of the biggest recalls of all time have been frozen food recalls. There are all kinds of things that can go wrong with frozen food. Like with any other food, they can end up with undeclared allergens, or foreign objects can find their way into the foods at the factory. However, what you may not have realized is that many bacteria and viruses don't die at the temperatures they encounter in your freezer. So, if you're not cooking frozen foods or not cooking them long enough, you can still be at risk from pathogens that end up in frozen foods.
While there have been plenty more frozen food recalls than the ones listed, these were the biggest in terms of pounds of food recalled, number of people hospitalized, and even lives lost. Yet, many times, it seems that routine food inspections may have caught recallable issues before they became tragic events. Our list of the 13 biggest frozen food recalls of all time starts in 2025 with the most recent large frozen food recalls and goes all the way back to 2007.
Read more: 11 Frozen Chicken Entrees, Ranked Worst To Best
The February 2025 Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial Frozen Supplement Shakes are the deadliest on our list. A total of 17 flavors of shakes were recalled because of possible contamination with listeria monocytogenes, which turned out to be deadly in this case. So, it was a "big" recall in terms of lives lost rather than physical quantities of food recalled.
One thing that made this outbreak so deadly was the fact that all the shakes had been sent to long-term care facilities. With two of the categories of people who are most at risk from listeria outbreaks being people who are age 65 and older and those who are immunocompromised, you can start to understand what a nightmare this outbreak became. Another problem is that listeria can survive and even grow in temperatures as low as 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Some frozen foods with listeria don't cause such havoc because they're ultimately cooked before consumption, but shakes are consumed cold.
The tainted products were manufactured by Prairie Farms and distributed by Lyons Magnus all over the U.S. Thus, 42 people from 21 different states fell ill. Of the people that it sickened, 41 ended up in the hospital, and 14 died by the end of the ordeal. Interestingly, Lyons Magnus had a previous beverage recall in 2022 after the FDA found various pathogens in its facility, but this is the first recall that has resulted in deaths.
The next big frozen food recall on our list is the BrucePac one in October 2024, which involved over 11.7 million pounds of frozen ready-to-eat meat and poultry products being recalled over listeria concerns. The products had made their way to kitchens making food for large quantities of people, such as schools and institutions, as well as restaurants. Plus, there were plenty of products in the recall that were available in the freezer section of regular grocery stores, especially ready-to-eat frozen TV dinners, like ones from Atkins, Boston Market, Target, Michelina's, Trader Joe's, and many more.
A recall was enacted after the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) found listeria in some of the ready-to-eat products at BrucePac in Durant, Oklahoma, during routine inspections. The products FSIS was concerned about were ones that had been produced during a period of a little over four months between May 31 and October 8, 2024.
Not only does listeria pose a large risk to people over the age of 65 and those with compromised immune systems, but it's also a big risk to pregnant people and the unborn. Luckily, FSIS doesn't list any related hospitalizations or deaths related to this particular listeria recall.
In March 2023, over 325,000 pounds of Scenic Fruit Company frozen organic strawberries were recalled for their potential of being laced with hepatitis A. The strawberries had gone out to several grocery stores and clubs, like Aldi, Costco, and Trader Joe's, under six different brand names.
The hepatitis A virus doesn't die off when frozen and needs to be heated to at least 185 degrees Fahrenheit to inactivate it. So, unless people cooked their frozen strawberries, eating them was quite risky. Ultimately, at least 10 people ended up catching hepatitis A from the strawberries, resulting in four hospitalizations in four states.
The strawberries had all been imported from a farm in Baja California, Mexico. The farm was the source of a genetically identical hepatitis A outbreak in 2022, which triggered proactive disease prevention strategies for the growers in the region as well as FDA import screening strategies for crops coming from that region in the future.
Rather than the Nestlé Hot Pockets recall in January of 2021 being about the potential for disease, nearly 763,000 pounds were recalled because of foreign object contamination. Several customers contacted the company to complain about finding glass or hard plastic in their Hot Pockets.
Luckily, Nestlé only had to recall 12 packs of Premium Pepperoni Pizza Garlic Butter Crust Hot Pockets with four different batch codes from products produced between November 13 and 16 of 2020. A total of four customers contacted Nestlé after they bit down on what appeared to be clear plastic or glass. The company enacted a recall for fear that the pieces could cause choking or lacerations if big or sharp enough. Although there was the potential for worse injuries or even death, thankfully, only one customer reported a minor mouth injury associated with the glass or plastic that was in the Hot Pocket they were eating.
In May of 2019, Conagra Brands in Russellville, Arkansas, recalled close to 2.1 million pounds of P.F. Chang's frozen food entrées from food shelves because it failed to list milk among its ingredients. Since the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act went into effect in 2006, we've seen a lot more food recalls happen because of labels that don't include food allergen warning information.
The USDA noticed the mislabeling problem when they were doing a routine label check. Since milk wasn't listed among the ingredients for P.F. Chang's Home Menu Chicken Pad Thai and P.F. Chang's Chicken Fried Rice, it triggered a recall. The offending items had production dates that spanned a little over six months between October 1, 2018, and April 11, 2019. All in all, more than 1 million products were included in the recall. Luckily, there were no reports of anyone allergic to milk who became sick from eating these products.
Another frozen food recall related to foreign object contamination was the 2018 Wayne Farms ready-to-eat frozen chicken recall. By the time the recall was complete, nearly 439,000 pounds of frozen chicken had been recalled.
A customer called to complain about finding metal pieces in their chicken on July 27, but the recall didn't take place until September 5, 2018. The Decatur, Alabama, company ultimately ended up recalling its frozen cooked chicken that it had produced between July 4 and July 17. Luckily, no other customers beyond the first one ever called in to complain about finding metal in their chicken. Still, it was a Class I recall (the most serious type) because of the potential for harm from anyone choking on or being injured by any other metal pieces that might have ended up in the chicken. It's certainly better to recall potentially dangerous food rather than hope that one piece of metal was the only one. A later Wayne Farms recall in 2022 was about undercooked chicken. So, at least the metal problem seems to have been a one-time thing.
An undeclared allergen was the cause of the June 2017 Maxi Canada frozen breaded chicken recall. Over 4.2 million pounds of frozen chicken were recalled because Maxi Canada didn't mention on the label that the products might contain milk. However, the problem began with a supplier rather than at Maxi Canada.
Basically, Maxi Canada heard from one of their suppliers that the ingredients Maxi Canada had used for its breading might contain milk. In total, the ingredient slipup affected sixteen different products that weren't labeled as possibly containing milk. The recalled products included everything from frozen chicken fries and patty fritters to and chicken strips and nuggets of various shapes.
No customers ever contacted Maxi Canada about a milk allergen issue from having eaten the frozen breaded chicken. However, undeclared allergens are a matter of health concern that triggers recalls to avoid potential tragedy.
The CRF Frozen Foods recall of frozen fruits and vegetables in April of 2016 is the largest recall on our list of all-frozen items, considering the sheer number of pounds recalled. This recall involved around 47 million pounds of frozen items, 358 specific products, and 42 brands that had the potential of being contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. Not only did the recall result in several hospitalizations, but there were also several deaths.
The recalled vegetable brands had listeria strains that were genetically related to the strains infecting those who had become sick. So, the link was officially confirmed through genetic matching. All nine of the people who became sick from the contaminated food in four states were hospitalized, and three of them died. However, only one fatality was officially attributed to listeria.
In July of 2015, Aspen Foods enacted a frozen chicken product recall because of a salmonella outbreak. At first, the recall was for nearly 545,000 pounds of frozen chicken, but it eventually reached around 1.9 million pounds of chicken. The products included raw chicken as well as breaded and stuffed chicken products.
You may not have realized that salmonella can survive in frozen chicken, but it can, even when stored at temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit. While temperatures of 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill it, salmonella can persist on raw chicken surfaces and potentially spread to other foods or surfaces before cooking. With salmonella having the potential to affect the elderly and infants as well as immunocompromised people fairly strongly, the recall was quite necessary. Fortunately, the outbreak was only limited to Minnesota, and only two of the five people who were sickened had to be hospitalized, with no reported deaths.
What started out as a recall of nearly 282,000 pounds of frozen pretzel hot dogs in November of 2014 ultimately turned into a 1.2-million-pound recall. The problem with these products was that all of them failed to list soy lecithin as an ingredient on the label, and it's a known allergen.
Soy lecithin is derived from soybeans, which definitely raised concerns for sensitive individuals. While soy lecithin wasn't an actual ingredient mixed into the pretzel hot dogs, FSIS noticed during its inspections that the company was using a non-stick product with soy lecithin on surfaces to help keep the pretzel hotdogs from sticking. With soy lecithin having the potential to cause an allergic reaction, City Line Manufacturing had to enact a recall. Affected brands with tainted pretzel dogs included Auntie Anne's, West Creek, Kunzler, Berks, Nathan's, and City Line.
The Hallmark/Westland beef recall of 2008 is notorious for being the biggest meat recall in U.S. history, with a whopping 143 million pounds of beef involved in the recall. While all the recalled beef wasn't frozen, some of it was, making it necessary to include it on our list. Despite it being such a landmark recall, nobody became sick or died from the affected beef, which is a wonder since some of the meat came from sick cows.
The recall ended up being so big because it covered meat that had been produced any time between February 2006 and February 2008. Within that long time span, most of the meat -- headed off to be part of school lunches -- had probably already been consumed. The Humane Society released a video in January of 2008 showing workers at Hallmark/Westland not only mistreating cattle but especially the ones that were also too sick to walk, indicating a potential for mad cow disease. In such cases, the company was required to have a USDA veterinarian inspect the animals and ensure they were safe to slaughter and sell for consumption but failed to do so.
After the recall, the company went bankrupt, and two of the employees were charged with felony and misdemeanor-level charges, including ones related to animal cruelty. The Humane Society still took the company to court, and Hallmark/Westland ended up having to pay a $317 million settlement on a $497 million judgment.
Another company that went bankrupt after its enormous food recall was Topps Meat Company, which recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen beef patties in 2007. Before the recall, the company had been in business for 67 years. However, 40 people getting sick from an E. coli outbreak in eight states was the nail in the coffin for Topps. While the outbreak could have been deadly, no deaths were reported.
With no requirement for meatpackers like Topps to test products for pathogens like E. coli, it was an outbreak that was easy to miss. Plus, there was a concern that the company might have been carrying over meat from one day to the next, causing the E. coli to keep spreading. So, the recall covered frozen meat produced over the span of an entire year, which is what made the recall so big. Freezing also doesn't kill E. coli, but cooking the hamburger patties to temperatures of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit does, which likely means those who became sick didn't eat thoroughly cooked meat.
An earlier recall might have prevented at least some of the 40 illnesses that occurred. E. coli is hardest on those under age five or over age 65, as well as people with compromised immune systems. Although officials from the Agriculture Department knew Topps beef was contaminated, it didn't order a recall for 18 days. By that time, 30 people had already gotten sick.
The highest number of hospitalizations from any of the recalls on our list happened from frozen pot pies contaminated with salmonella in 2007. These were sold under the Banquet name as well as several grocery store brand names, like Albertson's and Kroger. The fact that 401 people in 41 states ended up with salmonellosis after consuming undercooked pot pies makes you pause and consider just how many times you've eaten food from the freezer that wasn't quite cooked all the way through. Further, 108 of the people who became sick ended up in the hospital, which was 32% of them.
One problem with the microwave instructions on these pot pies from ConAgra Foods, Inc. was that they didn't account for the varying wattage of different microwaves. Cooking times for one microwave won't necessarily work for all microwaves, which can leave some parts still cold or even frozen. However, there were some other problems here as well. For one, the packaging for these Banquet pot pies had different cooking times listed in different areas. Other problems fell to consumers, like not realizing the product continues to cook during the cool down time you're supposed to allow before eating. Still, some consumers reported cooking more than one pot pie at a time in the microwave, using the same cooking time for single pie or cooking them in the oven when there wasn't an oven cooking time listed on the packaging.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.