FDA Warns Not to Eat Haifa Smoked Fish Cold Smoked Sprats: Made Without Botulism Controls, and the Company Refused to Recall Them. Sold in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, Possibly Beyond. Check Your Freezer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers, retailers, wholesalers, restaurants and food service customers not to eat, sell or serve any cold smoked sprats sold by D&M Smoked Fish Inc., doing business as Haifa Smoked Fish, Inc., of Jamaica, New York. The FDA posted the advisory on October 23, 2026.

An FDA inspection of the Jamaica facility found that the firm was producing cold smoked sprats without the food safety controls required to prevent Clostridium botulinum growth and toxin formation. The FDA recommended that D&M Smoked Fish recall all cold smoked sprats currently on the market. The company declined, so the FDA issued its own public warning instead.

The product can be identified as follows:

Product: All lots of cold smoked sprats sold by D&M Smoked Fish Inc. / Haifa Smoked Fish, Inc.

Packaging: Bulk cardboard boxes, shipped refrigerated. The product may be kept frozen for up to one year.

Shipping label: Boxes pictured by the FDA read “Haifa Smoked Fish, 94-15 150 St., Jamaica, N.Y. 11435” with a product label reading “C/Smoked Holland Sprats.” The pictured boxes show Lot #261, but the warning covers all lots.

Distribution: Retailers, restaurants, wholesalers and food service customers in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The FDA says the product may have reached additional states.

Because the sprats were shipped in bulk, they may have been sold at restaurants and grocery store seafood counters with or without a label. The FDA advises anyone who cannot tell whether their sprats came from Haifa Smoked Fish not to eat them and to throw them away, or to contact the place of purchase or supplier. Anyone who had the product should clean and sanitize any surfaces or containers it touched, following FDA’s safe food handling advice. The FDA’s advisory does not report any illnesses.

Food contaminated with botulinum toxin can look, smell and taste normal. Cold smoking does not reach temperatures that destroy Clostridium botulinum spores, and small whole fish like sprats are often processed with the guts in, where spores are most likely to be concentrated. That is why federal rules require cold smoked fish processors to put specific controls in place to keep the spores from growing and producing toxin. According to the FDA, those controls were missing here.

This is not the first time Haifa sprats have drawn regulators’ attention. In March 2011, D&M Smoked Fish recalled Cold Smoked Sprats and Haifa brand Schmaltz Herring after New York State testing found the fish had not been properly eviscerated, a botulism risk. In 2010, the company recalled more than 20 Haifa smoked fish products for Listeria, cold smoked sprats among them, after an FDA sample tested positive.

Symptoms of botulism include nausea, vomiting, fatigue or weakness, blurred or double vision, difficulty speaking or a change in voice, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, constipation, respiratory distress and descending paralysis that starts with the face. Symptoms usually begin 12 to 36 hours after eating contaminated food but can appear within a few hours or as late as 10 days. Botulism is a medical emergency. In severe cases, people die without intensive care, and early treatment with antitoxin is critical. Anyone who ate these sprats and develops symptoms should seek medical care immediately.

Botulism: Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of botulism outbreaks. The botulism lawyers of Marler Clark have represented thousands of victims of botulism and other foodborne illness outbreaks and have recovered over $900 million for clients. Marler Clark is the only law firm in the nation with a practice focused exclusively on foodborne illness litigation. Our botulism lawyers have litigated botulism cases stemming from outbreaks traced to a variety of foods, including infant formula, juice and fish.

If you or a family member became ill with botulism after consuming food and you’re interested in pursuing a legal claim, contact the Marler Clark botulism attorneys for a free case evaluation.