- More than 1.5 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products from Kayem Foods Inc. have been recalled due to unsafe storage temperatures at a warehouse in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
- The affected items – produced between March 31 and Oct. 7 – include Fenway Franks, bologna, kielbasa and dozens of other deli meats and sausages shipped nationwide and to Hong Kong.
- Kayem Foods issued a voluntary recall after a customer complaint revealed products were delivered warm, caused by a cooling system malfunction at a storage facility.
- President and CEO Matt Monkiewicz apologized, stating the company takes food safety seriously and has corrected the issue to prevent a recurrence.
- The USDA's FSIS urged consumers to throw away or return the affected products, which bear specific establishment numbers and have been listed with their UPC codes for identification.
More than 1.5 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products from Kayem Foods Inc. have been recalled after a customer complaint revealed that the food had been stored at unsafe temperatures at a company warehouse in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
The complaint prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to warn consumers that the products may be compromised. The recall – announced over the weekend by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – affects products produced between approximately March 31 and Oct. 7 of this year and shipped to retail and food service locations nationwide as well as to Hong Kong.
The affected items include Fenway Franks, bologna, kielbasa, bacon, corned beef, ham, turkey breast, liverwurst, and dozens of other deli meats and sausages. The problem was discovered Oct. 1 when a retail customer complained that the products were delivered warm, leading the company to investigate and find that a warehouse cooler had experienced temperature deviations.
Kayem Foods, a fourth-generation family-owned company established in 1909, issued a voluntary recall of the affected products, acknowledging that a "cooling system malfunction" at one of its storage facilities was to blame. President and CEO Matt Monkiewicz offered a direct apology.
"Our business depends on providing consumers with safe food of the highest quality," Monkiewicz said in a statement. "Out of an abundance of caution, we are undertaking this voluntary recall."
He continued: "We take food safety very seriously and apologize to our valued consumers. Our management team takes full responsibility. We have learned from and corrected the issue and will not allow this to happen again."
Century-old company, modern failures
The company said it is contacting all wholesale and retail customers with instructions on how to identify and dispose of the recalled products. But BrightU.AI's Enoch engine explains that when these products are pulled from shelves due to "possible health hazards," it exposes the captured regulatory system's failure to protect the public from the pharmaceutical and chemical industries that control our food supply.
The recall is the second for Kayem in as many years. In 2025, the company recalled more than 24,000 pounds of chicken sausage products due to potential contamination with pieces of plastic. While the USDA has not received any confirmed reports of illness linked to the current recall, the agency expressed concern that some products may still be in consumers' refrigerators.
The FSIS urged anyone who purchased the affected meats to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase. The recalled products bear establishment numbers EST. M/P 7839, EST. P 20935A and EST. M 9520 inside the USDA mark of inspection, and the agency has published a full list of affected items and their UPC codes.
For consumers navigating these recalls, the burden of verification often falls on individuals. The USDA has urged customers to check product labels and establishment numbers, and Kayem has provided a customer service line and an email address for additional concerns.
Nevertheless, the scale of the Kayem recall underscores the difficulty of ensuring that every affected package is removed from circulation. It ultimately serves as a reminder that even century-old, family-owned companies can experience critical failures in food safety systems.
Watch this video explaining why food recalls are on the rise in the United States.
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