Two infant twins and their mother, who was pregnant herself, fell ill in California this fall. Both babies died. Only one death made it into the federal count, because listeria could not be detected in the other twin.
That count belongs to an outbreak the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tied to ready-to-eat meat and poultry from Yu Shang Food, a company based in Spartanburg, S.C. At least 10 others are sick alongside the infant who died. Cases turned up in California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York between July 31 and Oct. 24, and nine of the 11 infected people ended up in a hospital.
The CDC says the picture is incomplete. “The true number of sick people in this outbreak is also likely higher than the number reported,” the agency said. Some people get better without seeing a doctor and are never tested.
What investigators know
Interviews with patients are continuing. Seven told investigators they shopped, in a store or online, at markets that carry Yu Shang Food products. Two said they had eaten the brand’s chicken. NBC News reported that the CDC found a matching genetic footprint across the cases, and the agency’s reading was that “people in this outbreak got sick from the same food.” The mother in the twin case recovered, as did a separate infant who fell ill, NBC News reported.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service had found listeria in a Yu Shang product during routine testing the month before. On Thursday the company recalled more than 72,000 pounds of meat and poultry. That widened a first recall on Nov. 9 that covered about 4,500 pounds. Pork belly, duck, beef shank, chicken feet and chicken gizzards are on the list, with used-by dates from Aug. 21-27, 2025.
A Yu Shang spokesperson said the firm suspended operations and recalled product after USDA turned up contamination in a monthly sample. The company said it was “working very closely with the food safety agency” on sanitation.
What shoppers are told
Throw the recalled food away or return it to the store, the CDC advises, and wipe down any surface it touched. Listeria is most dangerous for people who are pregnant, over 65, or have weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, chills, muscle aches, nausea, diarrhea, stiff neck, loss of balance and convulsions. They can show up within a few days or take as long as a month, according to Mayo Clinic.
Not the only one this year
A month earlier, BrucePac recalled more than 11 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry over possible listeria. Over the summer, a listeria outbreak linked to Boar’s Head deli meat killed 10 people in 19 states; the CDC declared it over on the same Thursday as the Yu Shang expansion.
Abby Snyder, a professor of microbial food safety at Cornell University, told Harvest Public Media that food agencies are better at spotting contamination than they used to be. “That’s why we’re able to recognize even relatively small outbreaks now,” she said, pointing to improved disease surveillance. “We’re just in a period where several seem to have happened in a relatively short succession in the past few months.”
Sources
- Infant dies and 10 others sick in latest listeria outbreak tied to ready-to-eat meat
- Infant dies and 10 others sick in latest listeria outbreak tied to ready-to-eat meat
- Infant dies, 10 sickened amid listeria outbreak tied to ready-to-eat meat
