Let’s Do Lunch, Inc. (doing business as Integrated Food Service (IFS)) has issued a voluntary recall notice for certain ready-to-eat sandwiches because they may be contaminated with the potentially lethal bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. The sandwiches were distributed directly to school districts and foodservice distributors.
Recall Affects Products Distributed Directly to School Districts
The recalled products were distributed nationwide “directly to a number of school districts and to foodservice distributors that serve school districts.” No retail products are affected by the recall; only those distributed to school districts and foodservice distributors.
The recall comes as the result of multiple positive tests on several different occasions for Listeria on surfaces that the products came into contact with. The company is “working closely with independent food safety experts to continue to investigate the root cause and take appropriate corrective measures,” the recall notice stated.
Although the products in the plant are likely not still in the flow of interstate commerce – and due to the fact that school is out for summer, any of the implicated foods can be swiftly returned to the company and not served – the company is still communicating the details of the recall to its customers and distributors.
Let’s Do Lunch, Inc. Pledges to Follow Through with Notification, Retrieval
IFS is notifying customers and distributors to “HOLD” any product affected by the recall that may be in frozen storage until arrangements can be made to return or destroy the product, and pledges to work closely with schools and school foodservice distributors until it can assure no recalled product remains in the schools’ and distributors’ respective locations.
The foodservice distributors are located in the following states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina,, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
IFS promised to post a list of recalled products and school districts that received the products on its website. The list, the company said, would be updated on a daily basis as additional information became available.
Empowering School Districts to Act
In addition to proactive outreach efforts by IFS, the company has established an IFS recall coordinator for any school district that believes it may have product still in frozen storage. Any such district should contact the recall coordinator at (800) 560-9999 between 8AM and 5PM Pacific time, Monday through Friday, or email [email protected] for return or disposal instructions.
