Queens Fish Processor Recalls Smoked Sprats Over Botulism Risk, Weeks After Refusing FDA's Request

A Queens, New York, seafood processor is recalling its cold smoked sprats after federal inspectors found the fish were made without the safeguards required to prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium responsible for botulism. The recall notice posted by the Food and Drug Administration on October 27 covers roughly 560 pounds of the product, sold loose in bulk cardboard boxes with no brand name and shipped refrigerated to retail stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The recalling company is D&M Smoked Fish Inc., which does business as Haifa Smoked Fish Inc. The FDA notice places the business in Queens, with the inspection that uncovered the problem conducted at the firm's Jamaica, New York, facility. All lots of the cold smoked sprats on the market are included in the recall; the agency's notice does not list individual lot or UPC numbers, saying instead that every lot currently in distribution is affected. No illnesses had been reported as of the notice's publication.

A Company That Had Already Said No

The recall did not come immediately. According to reporting published by Food Safety News on October 23, the FDA first asked the company to voluntarily pull all of its cold smoked sprats from the market after inspectors identified the missing controls, and the firm declined. That refusal prompted the FDA to issue a public warning telling retailers, restaurants, wholesalers and food-service operators not to sell or serve the product even without a recall in place. Four days later, the company reversed course and began recalling the sprats, according to the FDA's own notice.

The episode fits a longer pattern at the same company. The FDA recall page for a prior incident shows that Haifa Smoked Fish recalled cold smoked salmon and cold smoked seabass in September 2025 over possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination, a recall the agency has since listed as completed. The firm has also been the subject of recalls involving smoked turbot and, in 2011, an earlier instance involving the same two product lines. A recall notice from that episode shows a New York State Agriculture and Markets inspector found, during a routine check, that a batch of cold smoked sprats and a separate lot of Haifa-brand schmaltz herring had not been properly eviscerated before processing — the same underlying vulnerability regulators have flagged in small, whole fish for decades, since botulism spores concentrate in the viscera. No illnesses were reported in that earlier recall either. Small, whole fish such as sprats and anchovies occupy an unusual place in federal seafood rules: an FDA compliance guide on uneviscerated salt-cured, dried and smoked fish products notes that fish under roughly five inches long can be sold whole because salt and smoke are presumed to penetrate the entire body, while larger uneviscerated fish are treated by the agency as a potential botulism hazard regardless of how they are stored or packaged. The current recall does not describe evisceration as the specific failure; the FDA attributes it to the absence of controls needed to prevent bacterial growth and toxin formation during cold smoking, a process that, unlike hot smoking, does not reach temperatures high enough to kill the spores on its own.

Who Is Affected

The product was distributed to retail stores rather than sold under a single packaged label, which the FDA notice says complicates identifying it by brand alone; the agency instead describes it by the bulk cardboard packaging marked "Cold Smoked Sprats." Consumers in the three-state distribution area who bought loose smoked sprats recently from a retailer are advised to ask the store directly whether the product came from this supplier if the packaging gives no clearer indication. The notice does not specify exact dates of sale, only that affected product remained in commerce as of the October 27 announcement.

Botulism toxin does not announce itself through taste, smell or appearance, which is why the agency's warning to consumers is unusually blunt.

"Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled."

The FDA's notice lists botulism symptoms as general weakness, dizziness, double vision, and trouble speaking or swallowing, with breathing difficulty, muscle weakness, abdominal swelling and constipation also possible. Symptom onset after eating contaminated food is commonly cited by public health agencies as beginning anywhere from several hours to more than a week later, with 18 to 36 hours being typical. The illness is treatable but can be fatal without prompt medical care, particularly if breathing muscles become affected.

What Consumers Should Do

The company is directing anyone who purchased the affected sprats to return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund rather than taste or discard it at home. Questions about the recall can be directed to the company at 718-523-8899, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time. Anyone who has already eaten the product and is experiencing symptoms consistent with botulism is advised to seek medical attention immediately rather than wait to see whether symptoms resolve on their own.

The FDA notice does not indicate whether the agency has opened a broader investigation into the company's production practices following the initial refusal to recall, and it does not state a recall classification. For now, the agency's instruction to retailers, restaurants and wholesalers who received the sprats is the same as its instruction to shoppers: do not sell, serve or consume the product, regardless of how it looks.