Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit Recalled Over Listeria — What To Do If You Bought It

If you bought a Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit at Walmart between June 30 and July 7, check the best-by date on the package right now. If it reads 8/22/26, you have a recalled product with a possible Listeria contamination in your fridge, and that date is two days away — meaning if you were planning to use it before it "expires," this is the moment to stop and check instead.

Kettle Cuisine LLC, the Savage, Maryland company that manufactures the kit for Walmart's private Marketside label, recalled 3,240 packs of the 14-ounce soup kit after testing raised the possibility of Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The product was sold exclusively at Walmart stores across 29 states. The company has not received any confirmed reports of illness tied to the product, but Listeria is not a pathogen anyone wants to gamble on, and the compressed recall-to-expiration window here makes fast, no-drama fridge-checking the right move.

What's Actually Recalled

Here's the exact product to check for, using the details on your package rather than memory:

• Product: Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit
• Size: 14 ounces (397 grams)
• UPC: 194346474004
• Best-by date: 8/22/26
• Sold: Exclusively at Walmart, June 30 – July 7, 2026
• States affected (29): Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia

The product comes as a wrapped soup kit — a refrigerated tray or pouch format, not a shelf-stable can or jar — which is exactly the kind of product Listeria can survive and grow in even while sitting cold in your fridge (more on why that matters below). If your package's UPC and best-by date match what's above, don't taste it to check whether it "seems fine." Listeria doesn't announce itself with an off smell or taste.

Why This Is a Listeria Recall, Not a Salmonella One

We've covered several food recalls on this site this summer — Salmonella in jalapeños, Salmonella in eggs, Cyclospora in lettuce — and it's worth being specific about why this one is different, because the pathogen changes what "safe" actually means for a product like a refrigerated soup kit.

Most foodborne pathogens need warmth to multiply. Keep your fridge below 40°F and you slow most bacterial growth to a crawl. Listeria monocytogenes is the exception. It's one of the only foodborne pathogens that can continue growing — slowly, but steadily — at standard refrigerator temperatures. That's exactly why Listeria recalls disproportionately involve refrigerated, ready-to-eat products: soft cheeses, deli meat, pre-made salads, and soup kits like this one, rather than the fresh produce and restaurant ingredients behind most of this summer's other recalls. A soup kit sitting untouched in your fridge for a few weeks isn't protecting itself from Listeria the way it would from most other bacteria — if contamination is present, refrigeration alone doesn't neutralize it.

That's also why the FDA and the company are treating "possible contamination" seriously enough to recall the full 3,240-pack run rather than waiting for confirmed illnesses. With Listeria specifically, the standard practice is to act on the possibility, not wait for proof of harm, because the incubation period for illness can run unusually long — which we'll get to next.

Listeria Symptoms Look Different From a Typical Stomach Bug — And Can Show Up Much Later

If you've read our coverage of Salmonella outbreaks this summer, the timeline here will look unfamiliar. Salmonella symptoms typically show up within 6 hours to 6 days of eating contaminated food. Listeriosis can take much longer — anywhere from a few days up to 70 days after exposure — which means if you ate this soup kit weeks ago and felt fine at the time, you're not necessarily in the clear yet.

Early, milder symptoms (listeriosis without invasive infection):

• Fever
• Muscle aches
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea

Signs of a more serious, invasive infection — meaning the bacteria has spread beyond the gut, which is more likely in higher-risk groups described below:

• Headache
• Stiff neck
• Confusion or a noticeable change in alertness
• Loss of balance
• Convulsions

Call a doctor promptly if you develop a fever along with any of the more serious symptoms above, especially if you fall into one of the higher-risk groups, rather than waiting to see if it passes on its own.

Who's Most at Risk

Listeria is unusual among foodborne pathogens for how sharply the risk splits by who's eating it. For most healthy adults, listeriosis causes a short, unpleasant stretch of fever and GI symptoms that resolves without hospitalization. For a specific set of higher-risk people, it's a different situation entirely:

• Pregnant women — Listeria infection during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or a life-threatening infection in a newborn, even when the mother herself has only mild symptoms or none at all. This is the single biggest reason Listeria recalls get treated with more urgency than most other foodborne pathogens.
• Newborns
• Adults 65 and older
• Anyone with a weakened immune system — including people undergoing cancer treatment, organ transplant recipients, and those with chronic conditions like diabetes or kidney disease

If you're pregnant, over 65, immunocompromised, or feeding this soup kit to someone who is, treat the exposure more seriously even if no one in the household has symptoms yet — the incubation window is long enough that "no symptoms so far" isn't the same as "in the clear."

What To Do Right Now

Check the package. Match the UPC (194346474004) and best-by date (8/22/26) against what's above. If your soup kit doesn't match — different best-by date, different UPC — it's not part of this recall, even if it's the same product name.

Don't eat it, and don't taste-test it to decide. There's no visual, smell, or taste cue that reveals Listeria contamination. A contaminated soup kit looks, smells, and tastes completely normal.

Throw it away or return it. Both are acceptable under the recall. Most Walmart stores will process a return on a recalled item without requiring a receipt, since the product itself is the identifying information the store needs.

Wash anything the package touched. If the sealed kit sat against other refrigerated food, wipe down that shelf with hot, soapy water — Listeria can transfer from packaging surfaces to other food or to your hands.

If you've already eaten it and feel fine, there's no action needed on the product itself, but keep the extended incubation window in mind. Watch for symptoms over the coming weeks rather than assuming a few fine days means you're clear, particularly if you're in one of the higher-risk groups above.

Questions about your specific purchase? Kettle Cuisine has set up a dedicated recall hotline: 617-409-1104, Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm ET.

Quick Answers

My soup kit is a different flavor, not tomato bisque — am I affected?

Based on what's been reported, no — this recall is specific to the Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit, UPC 194346474004. Other Marketside or Kettle Cuisine soup varieties aren't included unless a separate recall notice says otherwise. When in doubt, match your specific package to the UPC and best-by date above rather than the product name alone.

I bought it at a different retailer, not Walmart — could it still be affected?

This recall is specific to Marketside, which is Walmart's private label, sold exclusively through Walmart stores. If you bought a similarly named tomato bisque soup kit somewhere else, it's a different product from a different manufacturer and isn't covered by this recall.

The best-by date on my package already passed — do I still need to worry?

Yes, for the purposes of this recall. A best-by date is about peak quality, not a safety cutoff, and it has no bearing on whether Listeria contamination was present when the product was made. Check the UPC and original best-by date against the recall regardless of whether that date has already passed.

Is this connected to any of the other food recalls covered on this site this summer?

No — this is an unrelated event. The pathogen (Listeria, not Salmonella or Cyclospora), the manufacturer (Kettle Cuisine, not Taylor Farms, Taylor Fresh Foods, or Midwest Poultry Services), and the product category (a refrigerated soup kit, not produce, salsa, or eggs) are all distinct. It happens to be a busy stretch for refrigerated-case recalls generally — see our coverage of the Clover Hill Dairy Listeria cheese recall if you want to check that one too, since it's the same pathogen in a different product.

Lowering Your Risk on Refrigerated, Ready-to-Eat Foods Going Forward

You can't test a sealed soup kit for Listeria yourself before you buy it, but a few habits reduce your everyday exposure to this specific category of recall:

• Keep your fridge at 40°F or below, and check it with an actual thermometer rather than assuming the dial setting is accurate — Listeria grows more slowly at lower temperatures, even though it doesn't stop entirely.
• Use refrigerated, ready-to-eat products within their window, and don't stretch a "best-by" date on anything pre-made and refrigerated the way you might with a shelf-stable pantry item.
• Sign up for recall alerts through FDA.gov's recall page or Walmart's own recall notifications if you shop there regularly — that's the fastest way to hear about something you actually bought, rather than waiting on news coverage days later.
• Consider what "convenience" is actually costing you on traceability. A packaged soup kit passes through a manufacturing facility, packaging line, and distribution chain before it reaches your cart — any one of which is a potential contamination point you can't see or control. Making tomato bisque at home from canned tomatoes, broth, and cream takes closer to 20 minutes than the soup kit's advertised convenience saves you, and it sidesteps this entire category of recall risk. A Vitamix makes quick work of blending a smooth bisque from whole ingredients — no soup-kit supply chain involved. For the pantry staples themselves, Thrive Market is a reasonable source if you're looking to shift more of your refrigerated and shelf-stable purchases toward brands with traceable, transparent sourcing.

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The Bottom Line

• Kettle Cuisine recalled 3,240 packs of Marketside Tomato Bisque Soup Kit (14 oz, UPC 194346474004) over possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination — sold exclusively at Walmart in 29 states between June 30 and July 7, 2026.
• The best-by date on the recalled product is 8/22/26 — check your package now rather than waiting, since that date is only two days out.
• No confirmed illnesses have been reported, but Listeria's incubation period can run up to 70 days, so recent good health isn't a guarantee if you ate it — especially if you're pregnant, 65 or older, or immunocompromised.
• Don't taste-test to check: throw the product away or return it to Walmart for a refund, and watch for symptoms (fever, muscle aches, or the more serious headache/stiff-neck/confusion cluster) over the coming weeks.
• This is unrelated to the Salmonella and Cyclospora recalls covered on this site earlier this summer — different pathogen, different manufacturer, different product category.

If you're checking your fridge against multiple recalls this season, our coverage of the Clover Hill Dairy Listeria cheese recall and the 19-million-egg Salmonella recall are both worth a quick check too.

Last updated: 2026-08-20