Italian Ministry of Health Recalls Head Cheese Due to Listeria monocytogenes

The Ministry of Health issued a precautionary recall of head cheese marketed by a supermarket chain in early September 2026, packaged in 100-gram trays, lot L263323, with minimum shelf life date September 17, 2026. The product was manufactured by a food company for a retailer associated with a supermarket chain, at its facility in Monza and Brianza province. The reason was probable presence of Listeria monocytogenes detected during self-monitoring controls, at a concentration below 10 CFU/g, below the minimum detection limit of the instrument used. The product should not be consumed, but packages already purchased can be returned to the point of purchase for refund.

Head cheese is a cooked meat product made from pork head cuts, sliced and packaged cold after cooking — a step that, while eliminating the initial bacterial load, leaves open the possibility of recontamination during cooling, slicing and packaging if surfaces at those stages are not properly sanitized. The fact that the detected concentration was below the equipment's quantification limit confirms that the finding arrived at an early stage, before the pathogen reached relevant risk levels, which validates the logic of detecting first and deciding based on that result.