A Salmonella outbreak linked to flavoured instant noodles, affecting over 100 people across 14 European countries, has now reached the Netherlands.
Almost half of those infected by this particular strain require hospital treatment, with children and young adults seeing the most severe symptoms.
If you’ve got a bag of chicken-flavoured instant noodles in your cupboard, especially anything from an Eastern European supermarket, it’s worth a second look.
Here’s what we know about the outbreak
Between November 2025 and June 2026, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) logged 106 confirmed cases of Salmonella Stanley infection, with 49 of these requiring hospital intervention.
Cases were reported in Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
A joint outbreak assessment from EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) discovered that flavoured noodle products were the most likely source of the infection.
Investigators narrowed down the list of possible brands
Neither EFSA nor the ECDC named the affected brand of noodles, but investigators in Germany and Lithuania found the outbreak strain in chicken-flavoured and hot chicken-flavoured noodles.
Both were traced to the same manufacturer in Ukraine, and other Salmonella strains turned up in products from the same brand, suggesting there could be more than one source of contamination.
According to NOS, Reeva Foods is reported by news agency AP to be the brand involved.
In a quality assurance and safety update, the company said it had detected a possible contamination in a batch made for the Baltic market by its Ukrainian producer, Euro Food Service, and that it’s cooperating with the investigation.
Reeva products tend to be sold here through Eastern European supermarkets, rather than the big Dutch chains like Albert Heijn or Jumbo. Food safety authorities across the affected countries, the Netherlands included, have already started pulling the implicated batches from shelves.
If you’ve bought a packet of flavoured instant noodles from one of these supermarkets lately, it’s worth checking the batch number on your product against any recall notices before you cook it.
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