The Pasta Brand That Failed To Inspect Nearly 10,000 Pounds Of Noodles

There's almost a daily cycle of seeing food recalls in the news, though some are more extreme than others. One day, you're seeing butter recalled because milk wasn't listed as an allergen, and the next day, you're seeing freeze-dried fruit recalled for potential Listeria contamination. In 2021, a popular frozen pasta manufacturer named Avanza Pasta was subject to a massive recall that affected nearly 10,000 pounds of its products, which puts it pretty high up there on the "extreme" scale.

On March 20, 2021, the USDA issued an official recall on "approximately 9,847 pounds of meat and poultry pasta products" manufactured by Avanza Pasta due to the products being produced "without the benefit of federal inspection." The recall affected frozen pasta products created between October 5, 2019, and March 12, 2021, though several products on the full recall list displayed manufacture dates into the beginning of 2022. 

These products were not only sold in retail stores, but also served at restaurants in states such as Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The USDA warned that these products were easy to distinguish because they lacked an establishment number and the signature USDA mark of inspection, and consumers were urged to throw away or return the products immediately. The recall wasn't quite as bad as the time over 147,000 pounds of frozen pasta was recalled due to allergen risk, but it was still significant.

Avanza Pasta is an Illinois-based brand that specializes in Greek-based foods and pastas meant to compete with the stuff in award-winning kitchens (the headquarters also isn't too far from the Village Tavern, the oldest restaurant in Illinois). It not only produces a line of packaged pastas in its own name, but also manufactures certain products for other packaged brands, such as Ambrosino's, Conte Di Savoia, Frank's Deli, Piatto Pronto, Minelli Meat & Deli, and several more. The brand got its start in 2017 and experienced the 10,000-pound recall just four short years later, though it doesn't seem to have experienced any major recall headlines since then.

So, why was the "approximately 9,847 pounds of meat and poultry pasta products" slipping past USDA inspection such a big deal? The USDA is responsible for the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) subdivision, an organization that inspects the nation's poultry, meat, and egg supply to ensure products are properly packaged and safe for consumption. It's the very same organization responsible for the frustrating "sell by," "use by," and "best by" food labels. For all the USDA knew, Avanza Pasta's products were contaminated with listeria or salmonella and now potentially in the hands of thousands of consumers, or perhaps it was all perfectly safe. The only way for the USDA to know was for an official FSIS inspection, which the products did not have, hence why they were recalled and labeled as potentially dangerous.