Made Fresh Salads Inc. has recalled ready-to-eat deli-style salads and cream cheese after environmental sampling found areas of its facility positive for *Listeria monocytogenes*. The FDA recall notice identifies the company’s Made Fresh Salads and Northside labels and says the products were distributed in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and New York City.
The recall is a current consumer-rights issue as well as a food-safety notice: the company says products should be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund. The FDA published the announcement on September 6, 2026, and the agency’s current recalls index still lists the item without a termination notice.
The products covered by the FDA notice
The notice covers a long list of refrigerated prepared foods rather than one packaged supermarket item. It names five-pound deli salads including potato, macaroni, coleslaw, seafood, pasta and vegetable varieties, plus larger tubs and several prepared items. It also names Made Fresh Salads cream-cheese flavors ranging from scallion and vegetable to lox, strawberry and whipped cream cheese, along with several Northside-branded flavors.
The recalled products were sold in white plastic tubs, aluminum pans and, in some instances, retail packaging prepared by a store. That last detail matters because retail labels and codes can vary by the location that repackaged the food. The FDA says the relevant expiration dates run from September 3 through September 18, 2026, printed on the lower left of the label for the bulk products.
The company did not identify a nationwide retail chain in the notice. Its distribution description is narrower: direct delivery to retail stores and distributors in the New York City-area boroughs named above. A household outside that footprint should not assume a similar-looking product is part of this specific recall solely because it is a deli salad or cream cheese.
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Why Listeria makes a refrigerated-food recall different
The FDA says *Listeria monocytogenes* can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or older adults, and people with weakened immune systems. Healthy people may experience shorter-term illness, the agency says, but the warning is not limited to people who feel sick immediately after eating a product. The current company announcement says no illnesses had been reported when it was issued.
The finding behind this recall came from environmental sampling by the company and the FDA, not from a reported illness. According to the notice, testing found some facility areas positive for *Listeria monocytogenes*. Made Fresh Salads ceased production and distribution of the affected foods while the company and FDA continued investigating the cause.
That distinction is useful for reading a recall notice. A recall is an instruction tied to identified products and dates; it is not proof that every item bearing a similar brand name has caused illness. The product description, location, package format and date code are the practical boundaries of this notice.
The refund is part of the consumer remedy
For a perishable item, the safety instruction and the financial remedy move together. The company asks consumers who bought the recalled products to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. The FDA notice also provides the company’s consumer phone number, 718-765-0082, for questions during weekday business hours.
Store receipts can help resolve a return, but the FDA notice does not make a receipt a stated condition of the recall. The controlling instruction is the retailer’s process and the matching product information. A household with a product that fits the FDA description can preserve the package or a clear label photo while contacting the seller, rather than relying on a general social-media list that may omit the distribution limits or use-by dates.
The dollar value of a tub of prepared food may be modest, yet a recall remedy is still a consumer right attached to a specific purchase. The more important point is that the refund should not encourage consumption of a product covered by a safety notice. The FDA’s record frames return as the remedy after the product is removed from use.
How to keep the notice in its proper scope
This announcement is not a blanket warning about all salads, all cream cheese or every deli counter in New York. It is a current recall for Made Fresh Salads and Northside products in the formats, locations and date range listed by the company. It also is not a nationwide refund offer with a claim form or an enrollment deadline. The remedy is a product return through the place of purchase.
For older households managing both food and medical expenses, that kind of specificity is worth keeping. A precise FDA notice provides the name of the firm, the products, the reason, the distribution area and the contact route. Those are more reliable decision points than a reposted headline without the original notice.
The FDA’s current announcement remains the controlling source for the Made Fresh Salads recall, including its statement that the company has stopped production and distribution while the investigation continues.
Four dates on a settlement notice
Only one of them is the deadline that matters, and the other three are what make people miss it.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a 36-page guide, a 5-tab Excel tracker pre-filled with all 51 state unclaimed-property offices and the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice.
See the four-date rule in The Settlement & Refund Recovery System.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by an editor.
