Potential listeria contamination affects meals served to thousands of Philadelphia students

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The School District of Philadelphia informed families on Friday that meals served to thousands of Pre-K and K-12 students across nearly 200 schools are subject to a nationwide food recall.

"Today, Whitsons Culinary Group notified the School District of Philadelphia that certain chicken products which had been provided to our Pre-K or K-12 schools as part of a meal program are the subject of a nationwide recall due to a potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes," said Interim Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Oz Hill in an online communication to families.

According to the USDA, the recall originates in Oklahoma. A supplier, BrucePac, has recalled nearly 10 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.

The school district said impacted meals and dates are as follows for Pre-K students:

• Chicken and broccoli Alfredo served on October 8.

• Chicken Strips Honey Mustard Green Bean and Chicken Caribbean Pineapple Sauce Rice Carrots served between October 4 and 10.

For K-12 students:

• Chicken with BBQ Sauce Rice Baked Beans Served on September 23.

Dr. Angela Skrzynski with Virtua Health says symptoms may be flu-like but may not appear until days or weeks later.

"You may not even know you had a listeria ingestion. You're going to think you have flu or COVID-19, and you're going to test negative for those things, and you're going to recover and go along with your life, thank goodness," Skrzynski said.

The CDC says listeria infection is rare but can be serious, especially for compromised groups. But for non-vulnerable populations, risks are low.

"Very rarely is somebody who is 2 to 50, I think it's even 60, who is healthy, that's going to have severe illness," Skrzynski said.

Out of an abundance of caution, the school district says it's removing all remaining items from school meal services.

"Your child will not be served this item moving forward. If you have any questions, please contact recallnotification101024@philasd.org or call 215-400-5600," Hill said.

The Philadelphia Department of Health says there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions locally, the USDA says the same nationwide.

For a list of impacted schools, click here.