Popular Walmart frozen meal recalled over possible listeria

25 Sep 2026, 14:33 · The Fresno Bee

A frozen meal is a promise you make to your future self. You buy the bag on a good week, push it behind the ice cream, and trust it will be there when a busy night hits. It is one of the quietest bits of financial planning most households do, because a full freezer is money you have already spent.

Recalls on fresh food often chase products that shoppers have already eaten or thrown out. Frozen food breaks that pattern, because a bag can sit untouched for months and nobody thinks to check it against a recall list. If the food goes bad in the meantime, that wasted grocery money is yours to eat.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posts company recall announcements as a public service, and it says it does not endorse either the product or the company. That system only works when you read the notice and then check your own kitchen. Most freezers never get that check.

Now, a frozen pasta sold under the bettergoods store brand at Walmart (WMT) is testing that habit.

Gias Foods of New York recalled two lots of frozen bettergoods Authentic Italian Lemon Alfredo Fettuccine on Sept. 15 after state testing indicated the finished pasta may contain Listeria monocytogenes, according to the FDA. The bags shipped to Walmart stores nationwide, and no illnesses have been reported to date, the company said.

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Why frozen food can still carry listeria months later

Cold storage slows most bacteria, but it does not eliminate them. “Listeria can live for a really long time in the freezer,” North Carolina State University food safety specialist Benjamin Chapman told Live Science in 2016.

That matters here because of the dates on these bags. In my read of the notice, the September 2027 expiration dates are the detail that makes this recall easy to miss. A bag bought this month could sit in your freezer for a year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year in the United States, 1,250 people are infected with listeria and 172 die from the infection, according to the CDC.

The risk falls hardest on a specific group. Listeria is most likely to harm pregnant women, newborns, older adults and people with weakened immune systems, the CDC says. The company notice adds that infection during pregnancy can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

What Gias Foods pulled and where Walmart sold it

The affected bags are 22-ounce yellow plastic packages with Universal Product Code (UPC) 194346442706, according to the FDA notice. Each bag also carries a lot number, the batch code stamped on the back, along with an expiration date.

Flip the bag over before you check anything else. The notice lists expiration dates of Sept. 19, 2027, and Sept. 20, 2027. Fox Business reported that lot L6079C carries the first date and lot L6080C the second.

The notice covers only those two lots, so a bag of this pasta with a different lot number is not part of this recall.

Lot numbers and UPC codes to check on the bag

Product: frozen bettergoods Authentic Italian Lemon Alfredo Fettuccine
Package: 22-ounce yellow plastic bag
UPC: 194346442706
Lot numbers: L6079C or L6080C
Expiration dates: Sept. 19, 2027, or Sept. 20, 2027, stamped on the back
Where sold: Walmart stores nationwide

Source:FDA

State testing in Florida and Washington flagged the problem

The recall traces back to routine state sampling. The Washington State Department of Agriculture and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ran the program that revealed the finished products may contain the bacteria, according to the FDA notice.

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Gias Foods has stopped distributing the pasta while it and the FDA investigate what caused the problem, the notice says.

Florida’s testing has now flagged two different bettergoods products in about six weeks. Botticelli Foods recalled one lot of bettergoods Pistachio Nut Butter over salmonella after Florida tested three jars from a Walmart store, TheStreet reported on Aug. 4.

No illnesses have been linked to either recall, according to the recall announcements. Representatives for Gias Foods and Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox Business.

How to get a refund for the recalled fettuccine

If your freezer holds a bag with lot L6079C or L6080C, return it to the place of purchase for a full refund, the company said in the FDA notice. I read the notice looking for a cooking workaround and found none.

Questions go to Gias Foods at sales@giasfoods.com, and the company says it will reply within 24 hours. The notice also lists a company phone line, 917-675-4890.

Symptoms can lag well behind the meal. Intestinal illness usually starts within 24 hours of eating contaminated food, and invasive illness usually starts within two weeks, according to the CDC.

Symptoms the CDC says to watch for after exposure

Diarrhea and vomiting with intestinal illness
Fever plus flu-like symptoms such as muscle aches and fatigue with invasive illness
Headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance or seizures with invasive illness outside pregnancy

Source:CDC

Contact a doctor if you ate recalled food and develop a fever with fatigue and muscle aches, according to the CDC. If you feel fine, most experts believe you do not need tests or treatment, the agency says.

How last year’s outbreak raised the stakes for shoppers

Listeria has a recent record in prepared pasta products. The CDC declared a multistate outbreak tied to prepared pasta meals over on Feb. 12, 2026, after 28 people got sick, 27 were hospitalized and seven died across 19 states, according to the CDC’s final investigation update, which also counted one pregnancy-associated illness that ended in fetal loss.

TheStreet covered the recalls at Walmart, Kroger and Trader Joe’s as that outbreak grew in fall 2025. Nothing in the FDA notice ties the Gias Foods recall to that outbreak, and the products and companies differ.

A frozen bag can outlast the news cycle by a year. Read the back of any bettergoods pasta in your freezer before it goes in the pot, and take the refund if the lot number matches.

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This story was originally published September 25, 2026 at 7:33 AM.