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The Listeria Pasta Alert Stays on the FSIS Page Twelve Days After Makary Resigned

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service public health alert for ready-to-eat meals containing pasta — first posted in the June 2025 FreshRealm investigation and last updated in late September — remains live on the FSIS recalls page on Sunday afternoon, twelve days after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned on May 12 and the agency passed to Deputy Commissioner for Food Kyle Diamantas as acting head. [1][2] CDC closed the underlying outbreak investigation on February 12 with 28 cases, 27 hospitalisations and seven deaths across nineteen states, but the food-safety alert document the agency wrote for retailers and clinicians has not been retired. [3]

The paper's Saturday brief on the recall day-book noted the Raaw Energy raw dog-food Listeria extension dated 3.31.26 and the croutons-and-asbestos-toys layer on the same week. Sunday adds nothing on top. Diamantas has not been nominated for the permanent seat; HCPLive's coverage of the transition flagged Stephen Hahn and Brett Giroir as the reported short-list, with no announcement. [2] President Trump told reporters on the day of the resignation that "everybody wants that job." [2]

The structural read is that the food-safety machinery the alert sits inside is built to run without a confirmed commissioner. The September pasta document is still the document a Trader Joe's deli manager would print if asked. The empty office has not changed any of the live recalls. The next test is whether a permanent nominee surfaces before the next routine FSIS sample.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago

Sources & X Posts

News Sources
[1] https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-listeria-monocytogenes-prepared-pasta-meals-june-2025
[2] https://www.hcplive.com/view/fda-commissioner-marty-makary-resigns-kyle-diamantas-steps-in-as-acting-head
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/chicken-fettuccine-alfredo-06-25/index.html

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