Ready-to-eat foods are only as “ready” as the safety steps that surround them. This is especially true when a common food such as fully cooked chicken has to be pulled back from the shelves because it might contain a bacteria that continues to grow in the cold.
Suzanna’s Kitchen, a Georgia business, recalled approximately 13,720 lbs. of ready-to-eat grilled chicken breast fillets due to a positive third-party lab result for Listeria monocytogenes. The product was packaged on October 14, 2025, and distributed to foodservice distribution centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio. At the time of the recall, no illnesses had been confirmed related to the chicken.
The details of the product are important because ready-to-eat foods tend to skip the only step that consumers can use as a safety net: cooking. In this situation, the products that were recalled were 10-pound cases that held two 5-pound bags of fully cooked grilled chicken breast fillets with rib meat, and the lot number was 60104 P1382 287 5 J14, while the establishment number was P-1382 within the USDA mark of inspection. In a busy kitchen or shared freezer, a code can be more easily missed than a brand name, but it is the quickest way to determine what needs to come out of the refrigerator or freezer.
Then there is the organism itself. Listeria can survive in soil and water, and it has a characteristic that makes it particularly pertinent to everyday meal preparation: it can survive and thrive at refrigerator temperatures. This upends the risk calculation for leftovers, deli-style foods, and anything that is “fully cooked” and merely needs to be thawed and reheated. It also increases the risk of cross-contamination, since a spill or a leaky package can contaminate shelves, drawers, and other foods that never came into contact with the recalled product.
The symptoms may not appear immediately, and they may not be the same for all people. According to the FDA, the symptoms of an invasive illness begin within 2 weeks of consuming contaminated food, while intestinal illness may begin in a day and last for 1-3 days. The symptoms of a mild illness may include fever, muscle aches, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, and diarrhea. The symptoms of severe illness may include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions, which is an emergency condition, especially in people at higher risk.
Pregnancy is an important risk category. According to the FDA, pregnant women are 10 times more likely to become infected than the general population, and infection during pregnancy can result in life-threatening infection of the newborn. Adults aged 65 years and older and those with weakened immune systems are also at increased risk of severe disease; in invasive cases not associated with pregnancy, the FDA reports that nearly 1 in 6 people die.
For families, the solution begins with the nitty-gritty of refrigeration. The FDA’s prevention guidelines include maintaining the refrigerator at 40°F (4°C) or lower and 0°F (-18°C) in the freezer, as well as turning to ready-to-eat foods quickly and regularly cleaning the refrigerator, particularly spills. These measures may not reverse contamination at a plant, but they can help slow bacterial growth and limit its spread within the home.
For anyone who consumed a recalled food and is experiencing fever along with other symptoms of listeriosis, the FDA recommends that one contact a healthcare provider and inform them of the exposure. For individuals who consumed a potentially contaminated food and are feeling healthy, the FDA states that most authorities do not think that any testing or treatment is required. As recalls such as this demonstrate, “fully cooked” is not the same as “risk-free,” especially when it comes to foods that are intended to be consumed without another safety step.
