A sweeping recall of cheese and other dairy products linked to a lethal listeria outbreak is expanding to include snacks, dips, dressings, wraps, salad and taco kits sold at major retailers including Amazon, Costco, Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe’s and Walmart.

The still-expanding recall started more than a month ago, on January 11, with Modesto, Calif.-based Rizo-López Foods announcing a nationwide recall of 344 cases of aged cotija Mexican grating cheese after Hawaiian officials found listeria in a sample. 

Less than four weeks later, in a notice published on February 6 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the California cheese and dairy company expanded its recall to include more than 60 yogurt, cheese and sour cream products sold nationwide, saying the products might be a potential source of a nearly decade-long, and still ongoing nationwide Listeria monocytogenes outbreak. 

Since then, there have been 15 additional recalls of products sold by nationwide grocery chains including salad and taco kits and snacks.

At least 26 people in 11 states have been stricken in the ongoing outbreak, with the latest illness occurring in December, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person died in California in 2017, and another fatality occurred in Texas in 2020, the CDC said Thursday in its last update.

Recent recalls include all Chicken Street Taco Meal Kit units sold at Sprouts Farmers Markets in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. The kits include a crema cup with the recalled cheese, according to a recall notice published on Monday by the FDA.

Glendale, Calif.-based The Perfect Bite Co. is recalling Mexican Style Street Corn Bites containing cotija cheese made by Rizo-López, The product was sold by Costco warehouses in California and Hawaii and had a best-by date of Feb. 21, 2025, according to the February 10 recall notice posted by the FDA.

Attention Costco shoppers

Costco sent notices to members during the first week of February alerting them to recalled cheese in its Southwest Chicken Wrap with Sauce product sold at its delis between Oct. 27, 2023 and February 6, 2024. Another Costco member notice involved chicken taco kits sold between Jan. 25, 2023, and Feb. 6, 2024. A third member notice involves Chipotle Chicken and Rice Bowls with best-by dates in January 2025.

Other recalls announced in recent days include one involving four types of Mexican sandwiches, or tortas, containing the cotija cheese made by Fresh & Ready Foods of San Fernando, Calif., and sold in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Braga Fresh of Soledad, Calif., is also recalling Marketside Bacon Ranch Crunch Chopped Salad Kits containing recalled cheese and sold at certain Walmart stores in California and Nevada.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is also keeping a list of meat and poultry products that include the recalled cheese. That incudes Chicken Chile Verde burritos with rice, black beans and monetary cheese sold nationwide by Amazon Kitchen. (Labels of the recalled meat-and-poultry products can be seen here.)

Fresh Express on Friday said it’s recalling two salad kits with condiment packs containing the recalled cheese. 

Sold at stores in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Utah and Wyoming, the Fresh Express Salsa! Ensalada Salad and Marketside Southwest Chopped Salad kits have use-by dates ranging from Jan. 6, 2024 to Feb. 20, 2024, according to the notice posted by the Food and Drug Administration.

The recalled products contain condiment packs with use-by dates ranging from Feb. 28, 2024, through April 4, 2024, it added.

The new recalls also include products sold at Albertson’s, Costco, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s after Fresh Creative Foods — a unit of Reser’s Fine Foods — recalled assorted dressings, sauces and a street taco meal kit (See a list of the recalled food here.)

Salad kits sold at Costco, Walmart and Winco are also being recalled because they contain Rizo-López cheese, Irwindale, Calif.-based Ready Pac Foods said. The potentially tainted-with-bacteria kits were distributed by Ready Pac in 15,751 cases manufactured between December 2023 through February of this year. 

Additionally, BrightFarms of Irvington, New York, is recalling Southwest Chipotle salad kits with best-by-dates between Dec. 13, 2023, and Feb. 22, 2024, because they contain potentially tainted cotija cheese, according to a company notice posted by the FDA.

The affected cheese is enclosed inside the kits and have has a best-by-date through March 27, 2024. The recalled products were sold by retailers in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

Potential for cross-contamination

Dole Fresh Vegetables is recalling Dole-branded and private-label salad kits such as President’s Choice, processed on the same manufacturing line as the recalled cheese, due to the potential for cross-contamination. The salad products were sold in 25 states and five Canadian provinces, Dole said.

The investigation into the outbreak is ongoing, according to the FDA.

Consumers are urged to discard the recalled products. Surfaces and containers that came in contact with the products should be sanitized, as listeria can survive in refrigerated environments and spread.

Listeria is most likely to affect pregnant women and newborns, people 65 and older, and those with weakened immune systems, according to the CDC. Infection symptoms typically start within two weeks of eating contaminated food and can include fever, muscle aches, nausea, tiredness, vomiting and diarrhea. More serious cases may also include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.