France Recalls Scallop Meats From the Bay of Saint-Brieuc Over Listeria monocytogenes in Four Notices, Including a Dish Made With Them

The French portal RappelConso published between October 23 and 26, 2026 four notices over the presence of Listeria monocytogenes linked to fresh scallop meats from the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, in Brittany. Three correspond to chilled scallop meats bearing the same health mark, that is, coming from the same processing establishment, and the fourth to a prepared dish, a scallop blanquette, whose maker indicates that the bacterium was detected in the scallop meats from that same supplier.

The first notice, on October 23, was issued by the processor itself: scallop meats with the official Label Rouge seal in 200- and 400-gram and 1-kilo trays, with a use-by date of October 22, sold between October 16 and 22 throughout France at four supermarket chains. That same day, the quality line of one of those chains followed, with 16 trays of 200 grams of roe-off scallop meats packed on October 16 and sold in two stores in Ille-et-Vilaine and Hauts-de-Seine, and so did the blanquette, sold in variable-weight trays between October 22 and 24. On October 26, the own brand of another of those chains recalled 200- and 400-gram scallop meats with a use-by date of October 22, sold in Calvados, Finistère, Loire-Atlantique, Loiret and Maine-et-Loire. The notices ask consumers not to eat the products and warn that listeriosis can be severe in pregnant women, immunocompromised people and older people, with an incubation of up to eight weeks.

Scallop meat is obtained by hand: the mollusk is opened, the meat is separated from the roe and viscera and packed cold. At these stages, Listeria monocytogenes can pass to the product from surfaces, knives and work tables, where it forms biofilms. The bacterium tolerates cold and can multiply under refrigeration during shelf life. The risk to consumers increases because scallops are often eaten raw, as carpaccio or tartare, or barely seared in the pan, so the center does not always reach a temperature that eliminates it.

For fresh seafood processors, the case shows that a single establishment can generate recalls at several chains and in dishes made by third parties, and it reinforces the value of environmental monitoring in shucking and packing rooms, together with batch testing of the finished product. TAAG's Ampliora 2.3 kit detects Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes by real-time PCR in foods and living and inert surfaces, and its datasheet includes the fishing and aquaculture industry. The association is indirect because scallops are not listed as a specific matrix and the news item describes recalls, not an analysis performed with the kit; a presumptive result must be confirmed with the reference method.