A salmonella outbreak linked to flavored instant noodles has sickened 106 people across 13 EU countries and the UK since November, with nearly half requiring hospitalization, EU health officials said this week, pointing to a single Ukrainian producer as the likely source.The European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control released a joint rapid outbreak assessment identifying the Salmonella Stanley strain, tracked under the designation ST2045, as the cause. Of the 106 confirmed cases recorded between November 2025 and June 2026, 49 people needed hospital care. Kids and young adults make up the bulk of those infected.Cases have turned up in Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the UK. Denmark was the first to flag the cluster back in March, after which other countries started reporting cases that genetically matched the Danish strain.
The noodles trace back to one factory
Investigators followed the outbreak to flavored instant noodles made by a single, unnamed producer in Ukraine. The products, sold in chicken, hot chicken, beef, duck, shrimp, curry and vegetable flavors, moved through a Polish wholesaler starting in January and ended up on shelves in Germany, Lithuania, Denmark, Czechia and the UK, among other markets.Lab testing found the outbreak strain sitting in both chicken-flavored and hot chicken-flavored packets pulled from stores in Germany and Lithuania. That match, combined with the fact that people who got sick in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Late investigators enough to point the finger at this one supply chain.“Investigations have linked the products, which were distributed in several countries, to the same producer in Ukraine,” EFSA and ECDC said in their joint statement, adding that this points to a shared contamination
It might not be just one problem
Testing in Lithuania also picked up two entirely different salmonella strains, Richmond and Newport, in the same hot chicken noodles that carried the outbreak strain. And in Estonia, a batch of chicken-flavored noodles turned up positive for yet another strain, Senftenberg, while a separate beef-flavored product from the same brand had the outbreak strain itself.That’s led investigators to think this might not be a single contamination event. It could be multiple ingredients getting contaminated separately, or several different failure points inside the same production line. Nobody’s confirmed which yet.
Recalls are out, but the risk isn’t gone
Food safety agencies in the affected countries have already pulled the implicated noodle products from shelves. But EFSA and ECDC warned that more cases could still show up, mostly because instant noodles sit in pantries for months or years before anyone opens them. No deaths have been linked to the outbreak so far. Salmonella infection typically brings on diarrhea, cramping, fever and vomiting, and most healthy adults recover without needing treatment. Kids, older adults and anyone with a weakened immune system face a higher risk of complications.Anyone holding onto noodles from the recalled brand is being told to toss them or return them to the store, not eat them. And for any noodles that still need cooking before eating, health officials are stressing the basics: follow the label instructions and cook the product all the way through.The outbreak was first detected by Danish authorities in March and reported through the EU’s infectious disease surveillance system. ECDC asked EFSA to run a joint rapid assessment on June 2, and the two agencies published their findings this week after weeks of tracing shipments, testing product batches and comparing genetic sequences from patients across nine countries.
