Walmart sold recalled Motor City Pizza Co. cheese bread over salmonella risk

The first job for Walmart teams was speed: find the recalled Motor City Pizza Co. 5 Cheese Bread in the freezer, stop it from selling, and make sure it did not get mixed back into good stock. Walmart’s recall page said the company and Sam’s Club move swiftly to block recalled items from being sold and remove them from stores and clubs, and that matters most when a food safety issue lands in a high-traffic frozen category where product can sit beside safe inventory in the same door or bunker.

Champion Foods LLC announced the voluntary recall on May 29, 2026, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted the notice on June 1, 2026. Walmart’s listing showed the product was sold at select Walmart stores in all 50 states. The recall covered single-pack and two-pack versions of the cheese bread, with sell-by dates stretching into 2027, including 2/4/2027, 2/5/2027, 2/23/2027, 2/24/2027, 3/9/2027, 3/10/2027, 3/17/2027, 3/18/2027, 3/24/2027, 3/25/2027, 4/7/2027, 4/8/2027, 4/20/2027 and 4/21/2027. The two-pack carries UPC 8 70375 00509 8, and the single-pack carries UPC 8 70375 00511 1. Champion Foods said the sell-by date is printed in black inside the cheese bread image on the front of the box, while Julian dates are printed on the film.

The recall was tied to a California Dairies Inc. milk powder issue that raised concern about a seasoning blend used in the product. Champion Foods said routine testing by the seasoning blend manufacturer came back negative for Salmonella, but it recalled the cheese bread out of an abundance of caution. No illnesses or injuries had been reported to the company or its suppliers at the time of the announcement. California Dairies had recalled 2,679,357 pounds of low heat nonfat dry milk and 19,841 pounds of buttermilk powder on April 20, 2026.

For store managers, the issue was not just compliance. It was customer trust. Walmart tells customers it uses official websites and direct email notifications for recalls, not text messages, and warns about scam recall texts. That means associates at the service desk and in grocery need to know where the recalled item is, how to point customers to the right recall information, and how to answer questions before confusion turns into a complaint.

The health warning made the execution even more important. Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, and severe cases can be more dangerous for young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. In rare cases, it can spread into the bloodstream and lead to serious illness. The recall fit a wider 2026 chain reaction tied to the California Dairies ingredient issue, which FDA said could lead to more downstream product recalls as consignees were identified.