Supreme Deli LLC Voluntarily Recalls Boar’s Head Pecorino Romano Cheese Because of Possible Listeria Contamination
Supreme Service Solutions LLC, doing business as Supreme Deli, is assisting in a voluntary recall of specific Boar’s Head Pecorino Romano cheese products after the supplier Ambriola Company notified customers and regulators of the potential presence of Listeria monocytogenes in select Pecorino Romano lots. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted the company announcement and product photos to help consumers and retailers identify recalled packages.
What Was Recalled and How To Identify Affected Product
The recall is limited to particular SKUs of Pecorino Romano cheese supplied by Ambriola Company and sold under Boar’s Head labels or other brands that used the same supplier lot. The most commonly reported affected items include:
- Boar’s Head Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese — 6 oz. containers (UPC details and sell by dates are listed in the FDA announcement).
- Boar’s Head Pecorino Romano Cheese wedge — 7 oz. packages (specific UPC and sell by dates listed in the recall).
- Some retail-prepared items that incorporated the cheese, including EverRoast Chicken Caesar salad items and wraps sold at specific grocers, have also been pulled where the cheese was a component.
The FDA recall posting includes product photos, UPCs, and sell-by or best-by dates to assist consumers and retailers in checking refrigerators and inventory. If you are unsure whether a product you or your business purchased is affected, consult the FDA recall page or contact the retailer for confirmation.
Authorities emphasize that recalls may expand as testing and tracebacks continue. Ambriola Company’s supplier testing prompted the initial action, and companies using that supplier lot are cooperating with the recall to remove potentially affected product from commerce.
Why Listeria monocytogenes in Cheese Is A Special Concern
Listeria monocytogenes is different from many foodborne bacteria in ways that make it particularly dangerous in ready-to-eat foods such as grated cheese and deli items. Several factors matter:
- Listeria survives and can grow at refrigeration temperatures (CDC.gov). Cold storage slows most bacteria, but Listeria is psychrotrophic and can persist or slowly multiply in chilled ready-to-eat foods.
- Listeria can form biofilms on equipment, in drains, and in hard-to-clean niches in processing facilities. Once established, it becomes difficult to eradicate without rigorous cleaning and remediation.
- The populations most at risk for severe or invasive listeriosis are pregnant people (and their fetuses), newborns, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. In such groups a relatively low dose of bacteria can produce severe disease including bloodstream infection, meningitis, fetal loss, and death. The CDC notes plainly that “Listeria are most likely to harm pregnant women, newborns, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems” (CDC.gov).
Because Pecorino Romano is a ready-to-eat ingredient used in toppings, salads, and prepared sandwiches, consumers often do not subject it to a reheating step that would kill bacteria. That lack of a consumer-side kill step is why upstream controls and rapid recall actions are crucial.
How the Recall Unfolded and Who Issued It
According to the FDA announcement, Ambriola Company’s internal or regulatory testing identified a potential presence of Listeria monocytogenes in specific lots of Pecorino Romano. Suppliers and affected brand customers, including Boar’s Head and companies that distributed under private labels, responded by withdrawing implicated lots and issuing recall notices. Supreme Deli posted the company announcement on the FDA recall page as part of coordinated communication to assist retailers and consumers who purchased these items through their distribution channels.
Retailers and foodservice businesses that used the implicated cheese in salads, wraps, prepackaged entrees, or other prepared foods were instructed to remove affected lots, quarantine inventory, and work with suppliers and regulators on disposal or return. Where the cheese was used as an ingredient in ready-to-eat meals, companies pulled assembled items containing the cheese as a precaution.
At the time of the recall announcement no illnesses had been publicly linked to these particular lots, but regulators treat Listeria positives seriously because of the pathogen’s severity in vulnerable populations and its persistence in food environments.
Public Health Implications and Clinical Risks
Listeriosis presents in two major ways: an invasive form and a self-limited intestinal illness. The invasive form can cause meningitis, bloodstream infection, fetal loss in pregnancy, and death. Symptoms vary by the affected group. The CDC explains that infection in pregnant women may be mild for the patient but devastating for the fetus, and that older adults and people with immunocompromise can develop severe invasive disease. For pregnant people, infection can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or severe illness in the newborn.
Symptoms typically appear within days to weeks after exposure. Because onset can be delayed, public-health surveillance and clinician awareness require a broad time window when investigating potential exposures. Clinicians evaluating febrile illness in a pregnant patient or an older adult should ask about recent consumption of high-risk ready-to-eat items and consider diagnostic testing for Listeria where clinically indicated.
How Investigations and Testing Proceed
When a supplier or company reports a positive environmental or product test, public-health investigators combine several strands of work:
- Product and environmental testing: Samples of finished product, retained control samples, and environmental swabs from production or packaging areas are cultured and, where positive, undergo molecular typing.
- Traceback: Regulators and companies trace implicated lot codes through distribution chains to identify retailers, foodservice accounts, and finished products that incorporated the cheese so those items can be recalled or quarantined.
- Case finding and surveillance: Health departments and the CDC check surveillance data for reported listeriosis cases whose onset falls within the exposure window and reach out to clinicians for exposure histories. If clinical isolates exist, whole-genome sequencing can determine whether clinical strains match isolates from product or facility samples.
- Corrective actions: Affected processing facilities typically halt production, perform deep cleaning, remediate identified sources of contamination (for example replacing equipment or repairing drains), and complete follow-up testing before resuming production. Regulators review corrective plans and may require verification testing.
Because Listeria can persist, investigators look for environmental niches and evaluate sanitation, equipment design, zoning, staff practices, and raw material controls to prevent recurrence.
Practical Steps for Consumers
If you purchased or used Pecorino Romano or a product that lists Pecorino Romano on its ingredients list, take these actions immediately:
- Check packaging for UPC, lot numbers, and sell-by dates. Compare them to the list on the FDA recall page or your retailer’s recall notice. If your product matches, do not eat it.
- Return or dispose of recalled product per retailer instructions. Many stores will provide refunds for recalled items; follow company guidance.
- Sanitize surfaces and utensils. If the recalled cheese touched a cutting board, container, or appliance, wash those items in hot, soapy water and sanitize. For porous cutting boards or heavily scored utensils, consider discarding or using a cleaning protocol recommended by public-health resources.
- Watch for symptoms. If you are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or caring for someone in those categories and you consumed the recalled product, be alert for fever, muscle aches, gastrointestinal symptoms, or, in severe cases, headache, stiff neck, confusion or decreased fetal movement. Seek medical care promptly and inform clinicians of possible Listeria exposure.
- Report suspected illness. Contact your local health department if you suspect you or a family member have symptoms after consuming the recalled product; reporting helps investigators determine whether illnesses are linked to the recall.
Retailer and Foodservice Responsibilities
Retailers and foodservice operators that sold or used the implicated Pecorino Romano should immediately:
- Quarantine and remove affected lots from inventory and stop use of the cheese in prepared foods.
- Notify customers who bought recalled items if purchase records enable direct outreach. Many retailers post in-store notices in deli and prepared-food sections to alert customers.
- Sanitize back-of-house equipment, display cases, and utensils that handled the product and test where appropriate. Environmental positives may require deeper remediation.
- Document actions taken for regulatory traceability and cooperate with suppliers and public-health investigators.
Prepared-food operators should avoid cross-contamination by segregating ready-to-eat lines from raw processing and by using separate utensils and boards.
What Producers and Processors Must Do To Prevent Recurrence
A Listeria finding in a supplier lot highlights process and environmental control gaps. Industry best practices to reduce risk include:
- Environmental monitoring programs that include regular sampling of non-food contact surfaces, drains, and potential harborage sites. Positive findings should trigger corrective actions and intensified verification testing.
- Sanitation standard operating procedures with validated cleaning agents, dwell times, and verification testing. Sanitation must target hard-to-clean niches and biofilms.
- Zoning and workflow design that physically separate raw material handling from finished product packaging to prevent recontamination.
- Supplier controls and finished-product sampling to detect contamination before broad distribution, including retention of control samples for a defined period to enable testing if an outbreak arises.
- Equipment design and maintenance to avoid niches and to allow effective cleaning. Drains, conveyors, and slicing or shredding equipment require particular attention.
When environmental positives occur, companies should stop shipments of potentially exposed lots and work with regulators to verify remediation before resuming full distribution.
Regulatory and Communication Considerations
Regulators use risk-based approaches to determine recall scope and public messaging. A supplier-level positive typically triggers broad warnings because a single contaminated ingredient lot often appears in many finished products and brands. Timely, clear communication is essential to ensure consumers and healthcare providers know what to look for and how to act. Public-health messaging must balance urgency with accuracy: investigators resist drawing definitive causal conclusions until clinical isolates or thorough traceback tie illness to product.
Because Listeria may cause delayed onset illness, health departments often take a conservative approach, issuing recalls even where finished-product positives are not yet confirmed if environmental positives suggest an elevated risk that could cause severe outcomes in vulnerable people.
What to Expect Next In This Recall
Investigations and follow-up actions normally include the following steps:
- Expanded product testing across affected lots and at retail to locate any remaining implicated items.
- Traceback to identify all brands and finished products that used the impacted supplier lot so those items can be recalled or quarantined.
- Environmental assessments at the supplier and any repackagers to find sources of Listeria and to confirm remediation steps.
- Follow-up public updates from FDA, state health departments, and the supplier or brand partners as testing and tracebacks produce new findings.
- Potential recall expansions if testing identifies additional lots, brands, or finished products that used the contaminated ingredient.
Retailers and consumers should monitor FDA and retailer communications for updated lot lists and return instructions.
Why Rapid, Coordinated Action Matters
Because Listeria can cause severe outcomes in specific at-risk groups and can persist in food environments, swift removal of potentially contaminated product reduces the chance that vulnerable people will be exposed. Early communication to clinicians supports case detection and treatment. Cooperation among suppliers, brand owners, retailers, laboratories and public-health agencies speeds traceback and remediation, limits the scope of exposures, and reduces the need for broader, more disruptive interventions later.
Analysis & Next Steps
What’s New: Ambriola Company identified potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination in specific Pecorino Romano supplier lots. Supreme Deli LLC (dba Supreme Service Solutions/Supreme Deli) is assisting in the voluntary recall of Boar’s Head Pecorino Romano products and related finished items that used the same supplier lot. FDA posted the recall announcement as a public service with product photos and lot details.
Why It Matters: Listeria monocytogenes causes severe disease in pregnant people, newborns, older adults, and immunocompromised persons and can survive and even grow in refrigerated ready-to-eat foods. Because Pecorino Romano frequently appears in ready-to-eat dishes and prepackaged meals, a contaminated ingredient can reach many consumers without a consumer-side cooking step to eliminate the pathogen. Early recall and removal of implicated lots protect vulnerable populations and allow regulators and companies to identify and fix root causes.
Who’s Affected: Consumers who purchased or ate the recalled Pecorino Romano products, people who consumed prepared foods containing the implicated cheese (for example certain pre-made salads or wraps), retailers and foodservice operations that used the cheese, and the supplier and brand partners in the distribution chain are all affected. Pregnant people, older adults, and those with weakened immunity are especially at risk if they consumed the product. Health departments, clinical labs, and hospitals are stakeholders during case finding and testing.
What To Do Now:
- Consumers: Check refrigerators and pantries for the recalled product UPCs and sell-by dates listed on the FDA recall page. Do not eat affected items; return them to the place of purchase or follow product disposal instructions. Clean and sanitize surfaces or utensils that contacted the cheese. If you are pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised and consumed an affected product, contact your healthcare provider and monitor for symptoms. Report suspected illness to your local health department.
- Retailers and foodservice operators: Quarantine and remove affected items immediately, notify customers where possible, sanitize equipment and surfaces that handled the cheese, and cooperate with traceback and regulatory instructions. Maintain documentation of actions taken.
- Suppliers and processors: Suspend distribution of implicated lots, perform thorough environmental assessments, execute validated sanitation and verification testing, and work with regulators on corrective action plans. Review supplier controls and retention sampling practices to ensure prompt testing availability in future investigations.
- Health departments and clinicians: Be alert for possible listeriosis cases with onset dates consistent with exposure windows; obtain exposure histories that include ready-to-eat cheeses and prepared foods, and pursue appropriate testing and reporting.
Final Note
This recall underscores the continuing vulnerability of ready-to-eat products to Listeria monocytogenes when supplier lots or processing environments are compromised. The recall and coordinated public-health response aim to remove potentially contaminated product quickly and to identify and fix root causes so consumers can trust the food supply. For the most up-to-date product lists, UPCs, and return instructions consult the FDA recall page and your retailer’s recall notice.
