State of California—Health and Human Services Agency
California Department of Public Health

Health Advisory

TO: Hospitals, Skilled Nursing Facilities and Long-Term Care Facilities

Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial Frozen Supplemental Shakes are Linked to Multistate Outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes Infections

2/28/2025

Key Messages

The California Department of Public Health is warning food service customers and providers, including long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and hospitals, who may have purchased or received Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial 4 oz. Frozen Supplemental Shakes to not sell or serve these products.
LTCFs, other institutional settings, and healthcare providers should contact their local health department with any questions on this outbreak or recall.

Background

The California Department of Public Health is warning food service customers and providers, including long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and hospitals, who may have purchased or received Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial 4 oz. Frozen Supplemental Shakes to not sell or serve these products. These products are part of a of a multi-state outbreak of foodborne illness caused by Listeria monocytogenes, a type of bacteria that can result in illness, hospitalization and/or death.

Recommendations

The California Department of Public Health recommends:

Distributors and foodservice customers, including LTCFs and hospitals, who purchased or received recalled Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial Frozen Supplemental Shakes should not sell or serve these products.

A list of recalled products is available here. These products are not available for individual retail sale.

LTCFs and other institutional settings that may have purchased these products should ensure that all recalled products in storage are discarded.

Facilities that have received these products should carefully clean and sanitize any surfaces or containers that the products touched and follow  FDA’s safe handling and cleaning advice to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

Listeria can survive in refrigerated temperatures and can easily spread to other foods and surfaces.

Patients who may have consumed these products, particularly those at risk for severe disease, such as elderly, immunocompromised or pregnant persons, should be monitored for symptoms consistent with Listeria infection.

Patients can become sick with Listeria infection as early as the same day and up to 10 weeks after consuming contaminated food, but the typical incubation period is 2 weeks.

Providers should contact their local health department if they have a patient with confirmed or suspected Listeria related illness who may have consumed the recalled products.

As of December 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified 38 people from 21 states (4 from California) as part of this outbreak of Listeria related illness. Ninety-seven percent (37/38) of patients were hospitalized; 43% (12/35) of patients died, including 2 from California. Eighty nine percent of patients resided at LTCFs prior to their hospitalizations with Listeria infection. Investigation by public health officials have linked these infections to Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial 4oz. frozen supplemental shakes. These shakes were distributed to foodservice customers, including LTCFs and long-term care facilities nationwide, but not available for retail sale.

Additional details on the epidemiologic investigation and frozen nutritional shake recall can be found at the following websites:

CDC Food Safety Alert

FDA Outbreak Investigation Notice

Lyons Magnus LLC Recall Notice

LTCFs, other institutional settings, and healthcare providers should contact their local health department with any questions on this outbreak or recall.