Another day, another food recall! Smith Packing has recalled 18,792 pounds of different ready-to-eat sausage, sliced meat, and poultry products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced.
The FSIS website confirmed the news that Smith Packing, LLC, located in Utica, New York, recalled the items “due to sodium nitrite levels that exceed the regulatory limit.”
The impacted sausage, meat and poultry foods were produced between Feb. 19 and April 24, 2025, before being shipped to institutional and retail locations in New York, the FSIS said.
A list of the 16 recalled products was included on the website, and the following items were impacted:
- As-Salaam’s Beef Breakfast Sausage
- As-Salaam’s Beef Frank 8/1 Halal
- Smith Packing’s Beef Knockwurst
- As-Salaam’s Beef Smoked Sausage 5/1
- Honest John’s Bratwurst 5/1
- Honest John’s Breakfast Sausage/Brown and Serve
- Smith Packing’s Export Beef Franks 6/1
- Smith Packing’s Export Bologna
- Smith Packing’s Export Salami
- Honest John’s HJ Jumbo Franks 8/1
- Honest John’s HJ Polish Sausage
- As-Salaam’s Hot Roasted Chicken Sausage Garlic
- As-Salaam’s Roasted Chicken Sausage Garlic 5/1
- Smith Packing’s NYS Beef Bologna
- Beefland USA’s Regular Beef Sausage 5/1
- Honest John’s Retail HJ Polish
The high sodium nitrite levels were detected after consumer complaints of products came in, complaining of off-taste and off-color, the government agency said. So far, there haven’t been any reports of “adverse reactions.”
Joe Schaeffer, director of marketing at Palmer Foods, the primary distributor of the recalled meats, addressed the “inedible” items in a statement sent to TODAY.com.
“Palmer Foods learned April 24 that certain products produced by its vendor, Smith Packing in Utica, were inedible. Smith immediately shut down production, alerted the USDA and determined the products contained an excessive amount of a curing agent,” the statement read.
The statement continued, “In coordination with the USDA, Smith agreed to a recall covering about 18,000 pounds of meat products labeled as Honest John’s, As-Salam and Beefland that may have been affected. Approximately 90% of that product never left the warehouse, and approximately 34 customers were identified who received potentially inedible meats. Palmer is working with those customers to recover and destroy any potentially affected product.”
Schaeffer said in the statement that Smith Packing has not received any information about consumers getting sick. He also shared that Palmer is working with the USDA to resolve the issue.
The FSIS added that the products have establishment numbers “EST. 4578” or “P-4578” where their USDA marks of inspection are located.
Consumers who purchased these items are advised to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase.