FSIS Warns Biscuit Gravy Meals Listeria Risk

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service is issuing a public health alert for ready-to-eat meat products containing FDA-regulated biscuits that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The alert was reported on November 14, 2026. It isn't a recall, and that distinction matters for what shoppers should do.

One named product shows the shape of the problem. The alert covers Mmm! Meals Made in Minutes brand Biscuit & Sausage Gravy, a 9.5-ounce product with use-by dates from November 12 through November 18, 2026. The products were primarily used for stocking vending machines, which is why FSIS posted an alert instead of waiting on a retail recall.

The problem surfaced through the supply chain, not a dinner table. A firm notified FSIS that it had received FDA-regulated biscuits that had been recalled by C.H. Guenther & Son. The biscuit is an ingredient, so every finished product built on it becomes a candidate for the alert list.

FSIS says additional downstream products may be identified as the ingredient recall progresses, and it will update the public health alert as more information becomes available. Consumers should check back frequently. The alert page carries the full product list, establishment numbers and the states where the products were distributed.

This alert is the second wave of the same biscuit problem. On November 8, 2026, Fresh & Ready Foods recalled 2,414 Fresh To You sausage, egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches sold in Oregon and Washington, because the biscuit inside them came from the same C.H. Guenther & Son recall. One supplier's biscuit is now moving through multiple companies' products.

No confirmed reports of illness have been tied to the products in the alert. FSIS says anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider. The absence of cases isn't the all-clear, because Listeria symptoms can take up to 70 days after exposure to develop.

The risk isn't evenly spread. Food contaminated with Listeria may not look, smell or taste spoiled, and the infection can be serious or life-threatening for young children, frail or elderly people and people with weakened immune systems. Infected pregnant women may feel only mild, flu-like symptoms while the infection threatens the pregnancy.

The practical instruction is narrow and current: don't eat the listed products, and check the FSIS alert page before assuming a vending-machine meal is clear, because the downstream list is still open. Symptoms to watch for include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness, and a diagnosis takes a laboratory test.

Public health alerts occupy a specific rung in the federal system. FSIS issues one when a product shouldn't be eaten but a recall isn't requested, often because the product is no longer being sold through ordinary retail channels. A vending-machine product with use-by dates already arriving fits that pattern exactly, which is why the warning, not a recall notice, is the document of record here.