Prairie Farms Dairy (Fort Wayne Facility) / Lyons Magnus LLC
Outcome
A February 2025 recall of Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial frozen supplemental shakes, manufactured at Prairie Farms Dairy's Fort Wayne, Indiana facility, ended a multi-year Listeria monocytogenes outbreak traced back to 2018 that killed 14 people and hospitalized 41 others across 21 states, with most victims residing in long-term care facilities.
Details
Prairie Farms Dairy / Lyons Magnus LLC — Listeria Outbreak, 14 Deaths, Long-Term Care Facilities (2025)
Outcome: On February 22, 2025, Lyons Magnus LLC recalled Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial frozen supplemental shakes manufactured at Prairie Farms Dairy's Fort Wayne, Indiana facility after CDC confirmed the products were the source of a multi-year Listeria monocytogenes outbreak dating back to 2018 that ultimately killed 14 people and hospitalized 41 others across 21 states, with most victims living in long-term care facilities.
Prairie Farms Dairy operates a dairy processing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana that manufactured frozen supplemental nutritional shakes under contract for Lyons Magnus LLC. The products — Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial branded frozen shake products — were distributed primarily to hospitals, long-term care facilities (LTCFs), nursing homes, and skilled nursing facilities where they were served to nutritionally vulnerable patients.
FDA was first notified of a potential Listeria outbreak cluster on November 25, 2024, when investigators identified an unusual pattern of illness in long-term care facility residents. Retrospective case analysis traced confirmed illnesses back to August 17, 2018, indicating that the Listeria contamination had been present in the Fort Wayne facility's production environment for approximately six years before the recall was initiated. Whole Genome Sequencing confirmed that environmental swabs collected from the facility's processing area during the 2025 investigation matched the outbreak strain found in ill patients.
As of the investigation's close in May 2025, 42 confirmed cases had been identified across 21 states, with 41 hospitalizations and 14 deaths reported from California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. The patient population was exceptionally vulnerable: the majority of ill persons resided in long-term care facilities prior to illness onset, and Listeria monocytogenes poses a fatality risk of approximately 20–30% in immunocompromised and elderly populations — dramatically higher than in healthy adults.
The recall, initiated February 22, 2025, covered all affected product lots. The FDA's outbreak investigation was subsequently closed.
Primary Source: Outbreak Investigation of Listeria monocytogenes: Frozen Supplemental Shakes (February 2025) | FDA
How Crucible Prevents This
A seven-year contamination window (2018–2025) at a single facility supplying frozen nutritional shakes to long-term care facilities — where the most vulnerable patients consume institutional food — represents a catastrophic failure of environmental monitoring, corrective action closure, and supply chain oversight. Crucible's DECISIONS log and recurring session-gate checkpoints would require documented environmental monitoring sign-off at each production run, forcing the facility to confront any open Listeria- positive environmental finding before continuing production. The LTCF supply chain nexus elevates the regulatory relevance: Crucible Municipal directly targets assisted living and long-term care operators who are downstream recipients of exactly this category of institutional food product.
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