--- title: Listeria Outbreaks and How to Avoid Food Illness description: An outbreak of Listeria Monocytogenes has caused a frozen food recall. Here is how to protect yourself. canonical: https://time.com/4344811/listeria-outbreak-foodborne-illness/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-23T17:39:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:45:42.188Z article:section: Health og:title: How to Protect Yourself From Listeria og:description: An outbreak of Listeria Monocytogenes has caused a frozen food recall. Here is how to protect yourself. og:url: https://time.com/4344811/listeria-outbreak-foodborne-illness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Protect Yourself From Listeria twitter:description: An outbreak of Listeria Monocytogenes has caused a frozen food recall. Here is how to protect yourself. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How to Protect Yourself From Listeria > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 23, 2016 5:39 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 23, 2016 5:39 PM UTC Outbreaks of [listeria](http://time.com/4344671/listeria-monocytogenes-outbreak-recall-symptoms/), a bacteria that grows well in cooler temperatures, have caused a frozen-food company to recall close to 360 frozen-food products sold under 42 different brand names — and that’s just the latest recall of popular foods people keep in the fridge. [Brands of sunflower seeds](http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/22/health/listeria-concerns-recall/), salad dressings and trail mix are [also recalled](http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/) due to a separate listeria contamination. The bacteria was also behind the [2015 Blue Bell outbreak](http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/ice-cream-03-15/), which required the company to shut down production and recall all of its ice cream. But there are ways to keep yourself protected from listeria, even beyond[ making sure you are not eating recalled food](http://www.foodsafety.gov/recalls/recent/listeria.html). The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing fruits and vegetables — including produce that you peel, like an orange — very well by running them under water before using them. For harder fruits and vegetables, like melons, zucchini and cucumbers, the CDC recommends scrubbing them with a brush. Be sure to dry off your fruits and vegetables and keep them away from uncooked meats. Other preventative measures include keeping a clean kitchen, washing counter tops after cooking and cleaning out the fridge regularly. Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or lower and the freezer at 0°F or lower. Another way to avoid contamination is to eat foods that are precooked or ready-to-eat as soon as possible. Deli meat shouldn’t sit longer than five days in the fridge, opened packages of hot dogs shouldn’t stay for longer than one week, and leftovers should be eaten within four days, the CDC advises. 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