Belgium Recalls Imported Frozen Pork Sausages Over Possible Salmonella

Belgium's AFSCA recalled imported frozen pork sausages on October 13, 2026, due to the possible presence of Salmonella, following a notification received through the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). The agency asks consumers not to eat the product and to return it to the point of sale where they bought it. The food was distributed to various points of sale across the country.

The notice does not confirm analytical results or report any cases of illness, and is limited to the suspected contamination reported through the European system. The product is frozen and raw, meaning consumers must cook it before eating, and it can be kept for months in household freezers. Because of that long shelf life, the recall requires checking household stocks as well as store stocks.

Raw pork and raw sausages are a frequent source of Salmonella in Europe. The bacterium lives in the intestines of pigs and can be transferred to meat during slaughter and butchering, and in raw sausage it is spread throughout the interior of the product when the meat is ground. Freezing preserves the bacterium without killing it: only thorough cooking, until the center of the sausage reaches a safe temperature, eliminates it. The main household risk is cross-contamination, when the raw product touches cutting boards, utensils or ready-to-eat foods. Salmonellosis causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain, and can be serious in children, older adults and immunocompromised people.

For importers and manufacturers of frozen meat products, the case reinforces the need to verify every shipment entering the country and to retain reference samples, because a European alert can arrive when the product is already in consumers' freezers. The TAAG Ampliora 1.1 kit detects Salmonella spp. by real-time PCR, and its data sheet includes meat matrices such as longaniza, raw chicken and frozen hamburger; raw pork sausage is not listed as a specific matrix, so the association is indirect.