Cured Italian pork was pulled in a Class I listeria recall

A shipment of imported Italian pork jowl, sold in the United States as guanciale, has been pulled from store shelves and food-service kitchens after routine import testing turned up Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium behind one of the deadliest categories of foodborne illness. The recall was announced on September 6, 2026, and carries the government’s most serious risk classification. No illnesses have been linked to the product so far, but the affected meat had already reached retail counters and commercial kitchens in eight states before the contamination was caught.

The Recalled Guanciale Lot

The recall covers imported, ready-to-eat dry-cured pork jowl produced at an Italian facility identified as Est. 1937L, operated by Bome SRL, on May 21, 2026. The product was shipped into the United States on various dates in July 2026 and distributed under the labels of two companies, Prime Line Distributors Inc. and Ferrarini USA Inc. Packages tied to the recall carry lot number 263311US, a best-if-used-by date of May 16, 2027, and the foreign establishment number “IT 1937 L CE” printed on the packaging, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Guanciale, made from cured pork jowl or cheek, is typically eaten thinly sliced or rendered into dishes like carbonara and amatriciana rather than cooked to a high internal temperature the way fresh pork usually is, which is part of why contamination in a ready-to-eat cured product draws the strictest recall category.

How Routine Testing Caught It

FSIS did not act on a consumer complaint or a reported illness. The contamination surfaced during the agency’s routine reinspection of imported meat at the point of entry, a standard checkpoint where samples of incoming foreign product are tested before they are cleared for wider distribution. A sample from this shipment came back positive for Listeria monocytogenes, triggering the recall process even though the pork had already moved past the port and into commercial channels, according to the FSIS recall notice. That sequence is common with imported ready-to-eat meats: because the product is not intended to be cooked further by the retailer or the consumer, a single confirmed positive is enough to pull an entire associated lot rather than waiting for additional testing or a pattern of illness reports.

How USDA Grades the Severity of a Recall

FSIS does not treat every recall the same way. The agency sorts each one into a class based on how likely the product is to cause harm, a determination made by its Event Assessment Committee, a standing group of agency scientists, field inspectors, enforcement staff and communications specialists who review the evidence before a public notice goes out. A Class II recall covers a remote probability of adverse health effects, the kind of designation typically reserved for undeclared minor allergens or small, non-sharp foreign material found in a product. A Class III recall applies when a violation is unlikely to cause any health consequence at all, often a labeling error rather than a contamination risk. The guanciale recall was rated Class I, the top tier, reserved for situations where there is a reasonable probability that eating the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death. Listeria monocytogenes in a ready-to-eat meat automatically pushes a recall into that category, because the pathogen does not need a large dose or an already-vulnerable host to become dangerous, and because the product is eaten without a cooking step that would otherwise kill the bacteria before it reaches the table.

Where the Pork Was Distributed

The two companies named in the recall shipped the guanciale to different footprints. Ferrarini USA’s portion of the recalled product reached food-service accounts and retail locations across California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Prime Line Distributors’ shipments were limited to locations within Florida. Total volume tied to the recall is roughly 1,513 pounds, a comparatively small amount by the standards of national meat recalls, but wide enough that FSIS is asking anyone who bought or was served the product to check the lot number rather than assume a limited local distribution kept them clear of it. As of the most recent update, the agency has not received any confirmed reports of illness connected to the recalled pork.

Listeria’s Danger for Older Adults

Listeria monocytogenes stands apart from most foodborne pathogens because it can grow at refrigerator temperatures, meaning storing the product safely in a home refrigerator does not neutralize the risk the way it would for many other bacteria. Infection, known as listeriosis, most often causes fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms in otherwise healthy people, but the illness can turn severe or fatal in adults over 65, pregnant women, newborns and anyone with a weakened immune system. In those groups, the bacteria can spread beyond the intestinal tract and cause bloodstream infections or meningitis, which is why federal guidance treats any confirmed Listeria contamination in a ready-to-eat product as an urgent, highest-tier recall rather than a routine advisory. Anyone who has the recalled guanciale in a refrigerator or freezer is advised not to taste it to check for spoilage, since contaminated food often looks, smells and tastes normal, and instead to discard it or return it to the point of purchase.

Nationally, listeriosis is rarer than most foodborne illnesses but far deadlier per case: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly 1,600 people are diagnosed with the infection each year in the United States and about 260 of them die, making it the fourth-leading cause of death among foodborne illnesses despite its comparatively low case count, according to the CDC’s overview of listeria infection. Symptoms can take anywhere from a few days to as long as ten weeks to appear after exposure, a delay that makes it difficult for someone who ate the recalled guanciale to connect a later fever, headache or stiff neck back to a specific meal. That lag is part of why FSIS is urging anyone who was served the product through a restaurant or deli counter, not just households that bought a package directly, to treat the exposure seriously and watch for symptoms even without a receipt or packaging to check against the recalled lot number.

This article was created with the assistance of AI and reviewed by an editor.

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