Rao's Chicken & Gnocchi Soup Recall: The Dietary Risks You Should Know
East Harlem destination Rao's is a New York City-born Italian restaurant that has achieved national recognition for its store-brand Rao's Homemade sauces, soups, and other Italian-style products. Its sauces have been pantry staples since they first launched in stores in 1992, and in 2017, the Rao's brand was acquired by California-based food and beverage company Sovos Brands. Its traditional red sauce might be its best-known product, but others include frozen entrées, packaged pastas, and soups.
Back in 2019, Rao's Homemade launched its first-ever line of glass-jar soups. The brand's announcement revealed the soups contain "no artificial flavors or colors" and that the soups are made with clean ingredients that consumers will recognize on the food label. However, Rao's Homemade soups recently hit a snag when the company put out a statement in January 2023 that they were recalling 16-ounce jars of the Chicken & Gnocchi soup — it turns out that the soup's contents have been dangerously mislabeled.
Rao's Homemade Chicken & Gnocchi soup has been recalled
On January 30, Rao's Homemade recalled certain 16-ounce jars of its Chicken & Gnocchi soup. According to the announcement, the jars affected don't actually contain Chicken & Gnocchi; they were packaged with the brand's Vegetable Minestrone variety. The Vegetable Minestrone contains egg, whereas the Chicken & Gnocchi label excludes it, which could be dangerous for anyone with an egg allergy who consumes the soup.
"The product is packaged in a 16-ounce, clear glass jar marked with the following code date printed on the top of the jar: Best By NOV 15 2024 EST 251 Code Date 2320 MDV 046030Z009, UPC 747479400015. Only soup with Code Date 2320 MDV 046030Z009 is part of the recall," the announcement reads. Consumers can receive a full refund upon returning the soup to the store where they purchased the item.
This wouldn't be the first time a company has recalled its soup due to undeclared allergens. In 2020, Faribault Foods, Inc. recalled cans of Progresso soup for the same reason: wrongly packaged products that resulted in an incorrect ingredient list. In 2022, Top Class Actions reported that fast-casual chain Panera Bread had to do the same when its store-brand Southwest Corn Chowder had an undeclared wheat allergen.