Krasnyi Oktyabr Inc. of Brooklyn, New York, has voluntarily recalled its Starfish Seafood Trio, a vacuum-sealed pack of cold-smoked salmon, halibut and trout, over possible listeria contamination. The FDA published the recall on October 9, 2026. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets identified the potential contamination, and the company, a wholesale distributor that did not make the fish, started the recall.
The product went to retailers in New York, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina and South Carolina. No illnesses have been reported. Customers should check the lot number and expiration date on the package, not eat it if it matches, and return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. The company has told its own customers to stop selling the product and to identify any stock they still hold.
Why cold does not help
The technical reality about Listeria monocytogenes is that the fridge is not a safeguard. The bacterium grows from refrigerator temperature, 4 °C (39.2 °F), up to body temperature, and it survives freezing. It lives naturally in soil, water, sewage, plants and animal waste. Cold-smoked seafood is one of the foods most often linked to it, along with unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses such as feta, brie and queso fresco, deli meats and hot dogs contaminated after processing, and raw produce carrying soil or manure.
Healthy adults usually get mild stomach-flu symptoms or none at all. The danger lies elsewhere: the overt form of the disease has a case-fatality rate of around 20 to 30 percent. Pregnant women are significantly more susceptible, and the infection can pass to the fetus, causing miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery or life-threatening illness after birth. Adults 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems, including those on chemotherapy or with diabetes, kidney or liver disease or HIV/AIDS, also face elevated risk.
Symptoms and timing
When the infection stays in the gut, mild symptoms usually appear within 24 hours and clear in a few days. If the bacteria reach the bloodstream, brain or spinal cord, the signs are headache, stiff neck, loss of balance, confusion, changes in alertness or seizures. These often show within two weeks but can take up to two months, and the incubation period overall runs from three to 70 days. Sepsis and meningitis are the two main complications. Anyone who ate a recalled product should watch for symptoms and speak to a healthcare professional, and seek emergency care for high fever, severe headache, stiff neck or confusion.
Cleaning and storage in the kitchen
Health officials advise washing hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food, and scrubbing raw fruit and vegetables with a brush under running water. Keep fluid from hot dog packages and raw meats away from other food, utensils and prep surfaces. Surfaces need real sanitation; ethanol is an effective sanitizer against Listeria, and quaternary ammonium compounds can be used alongside alcohol for longer-lasting action.
Set the refrigerator to 40 °F or below and the freezer to 0 °F or lower, and use a food thermometer: cooking meats to an internal temperature of about 74 °C (165 °F) kills the pathogen. People in high-risk groups should avoid deli meats, lunch meats and hot dogs unless they are reheated until steaming hot.
Sources
- Listeria
- What is listeria? Symptoms, high-risk groups and food safety facts explained
- Smoked fish recalled in several states over possible listeria contamination
Photo: Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya (CC BY-SA 4.0)
