Lettieri Sesame Recall 2025: 490,000 lbs of Sandwiches

The Hearthside/Lettieri Sesame Recall (2025): Two Years of Undeclared Sesame

On 2 April 2025, Hearthside Food Solutions of Salt Lake City, Utah, recalled approximately 489,887 pounds of Lettieri’s Food To Go breakfast sandwiches — because the French toast component contained sesame flour that the label never declared. The products had been made from April 2023 to March 2025: two full years of production. Shipped to military exchanges nationwide, the sandwiches sat in freezers on bases across America — a Class I recall of a product eaten by service members and their families.

The product and the people affected

The recalled products were frozen, ready-to-eat Lettieri’s Food To Go Sausage, Egg & Cheese French Toast Breakfast Sandwiches (8.35 oz.) and Bacon, Egg & Cheese French Toast Breakfast Sandwiches (7.3 oz.), with lot codes beginning 23, 24, and 25 up to 2508451, bearing establishment number EST. V4907. They were shipped to Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) locations nationwide — military base stores serving service members, families, and retirees.

At a glance:

What happened

Hearthside itself discovered the problem and notified FSIS: the French toast component of the breakfast sandwiches was formulated with sesame flour, but sesame did not appear on the finished product’s ingredient list. Because sesame became the ninth major U.S. allergen under the FASTER Act (effective January 2023) — right at the start of the production window — the timing suggests a regulatory-transition failure: a formulation containing sesame flour whose labelling was never updated to reflect sesame’s new status as a declarable major allergen.

FSIS classified the recall as Class I — the most serious category, reserved for products with a reasonable probability of causing serious health consequences. The agency expressed particular concern that the sandwiches, with their 12-month shelf life, might still be in consumers’ freezers at AAFES locations long after the recall.

No confirmed adverse reactions were reported — but with two years of production, nationwide military distribution, and a 12-month shelf life, the exposure was enormous. The absence of reported reactions likely reflects both the relatively recent recognition of sesame allergy and under-reporting, not the absence of risk.

The FASTER Act transition remains the most likely explanation for the two-year gap between sesame’s elevation to major-allergen status and this recall. When the law took effect in January 2023, thousands of formulations already contained sesame — in flours, oils, flavourings, and bakery ingredients — and every one needed a label review. The FDA’s own guidance acknowledged the scale of the changeover, but the obligation was clear: by the effective date, labels had to declare sesame. Companies that treated the deadline as the start of a gradual process, rather than a hard cutover, built up exactly the kind of multi-year exposure this recall represents.

Timeline

• April 2023 – March 2025 — Affected sandwiches produced with sesame flour in French toast; sesame not declared.
• 2 April 2025 — Hearthside notifies FSIS; Class I recall of ~489,887 pounds announced.
• 2025 — Product retrieved from AAFES locations; labelling corrected to declare sesame.

Root cause

The company’s investigation found that the French toast component contained sesame flour that was not declared on the finished product label. The root cause was a labelling-system failure coinciding with a regulatory transition: sesame became a major allergen under the FASTER Act effective January 2023, and the product’s labelling was never updated to declare the sesame flour in its formulation. The formulation-to-label review process did not account for the change in sesame’s regulatory status — a compliance gap that persisted for two years across nearly half a million pounds of product.

Regulatory and business outcome

The FSIS Class I recall — the agency’s most serious classification — required extensive retrieval efforts across the AAFES system. No enforcement action beyond the recall is documented, and the company’s voluntary self-reporting to FSIS was the cooperative path. For Hearthside, one of the largest contract manufacturers in North America, the incident was a significant quality-system failure with a high-profile customer (the U.S. military exchange system). The case has become the leading example of FASTER Act transition failures — proof that the January 2023 sesame deadline required active label remediation, not passive compliance.

Lessons for food businesses

1. Regulatory transitions require active label remediation. When sesame became a major allergen in January 2023, every formulation containing sesame needed a label review. Passive compliance — changing nothing — produced a two-year, 490,000-pound recall.
2. Audit every SKU when allergen law changes. The FASTER Act’s effective date should have triggered a complete portfolio review at every food company. Build regulatory-change management into your label control procedures.
3. Sesame hides in plain sight. Sesame flour in French toast, tahini in hummus, sesame oil in flavourings — the newly-declared allergen was already in thousands of formulations. Map it everywhere.
4. Class I recalls demand the full response. FSIS’s most serious classification brings the most intense scrutiny and the broadest retrieval obligation. Long shelf life plus wide distribution equals maximum exposure.
5. Military and institutional distribution raises the stakes. Products served to service members invite congressional and media attention that commercial recalls don’t. Treat government and institutional contracts as high-visibility obligations.
6. Self-reporting is the right call. Hearthside discovered the problem and notified FSIS — the cooperative path that keeps a recall from becoming an enforcement action. Build a culture where bad news travels up fast.
7. Twelve-month shelf life means twelve months of exposure. Long shelf-life products require especially rigorous label accuracy, because the error persists in freezers long after production stops.

Sources

• “490,000 pounds of breakfast sandwiches recalled because of undeclared sesame” — Food Safety News, 2 April 2025. https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/04/490000-pounds-of-breakfast-sandwiches-recalled-because-of-undeclared-sesame/
• “Sesame Alert: Lettieri’s Breakfast Sandwiches” — Kids With Food Allergies (republishing FSIS recall notice), April 2025. https://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/sesame-alert-lettieri-s-breakfast-sandwiches