Meat producer BrucePac is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of meat and poultry products sold at Trader Joe’s, Target, Kroger and other retailers because they might be contaminated with listeria.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the sweeping recall last week. It includes hundreds of ready-to-eat items that were produced from June 19 to Oct. 8 and distributed to restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses around the country.

The outbreak was discovered after government inspectors performed routine testing of products containing poultry produced by BrucePac, and found them to be positive for listeria. Additional investigation identified BrucePac’s ready-to-eat chicken as the source of the bacteria.

There have been no confirmed reports of people becoming sick from consuming the products, which should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

What are some of the recalled products?

The affected products include prepackaged salads, chicken wraps and bowls, and frozen entrees from brands such as Michelina’s and Rao’s.

Target is recalling its Good & Gather salads and other products. At Trader Joe’s, the recall includes its White Meat Chicken Salad, Harvest Salad With Grilled Chicken, Pacific Salad With Chicken, Chicken Enchiladas Verde and Curried White Chicken Deli Salad.

Can I see the full list?

The USDA released a 326-page document showing the food labels of affected products.

The agency said products subject to the recall have the establishment numbers 51205 or P-51205 inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. But BrucePac on Friday noted that those numbers are found only on the packages shipped directly to its customers; consumers will not find them on their retail packages.

What is listeria and why is it dangerous?

Consumption of food contaminated with the bacteria can lead to listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects adults 65 and older, people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and newborns, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Others can be infected with listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.

Listeria can cause invasive illness and intestinal illness, the agency said. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal issues.

What is BrucePac?

Founded in 1949, family-owned BrucePac produces precooked proteins that it sells to other companies, which repackage or use the products as ingredients in other foods.

The company operates two USDA processing facilities — in Woodburn, Ore., and Durant, Okla., where it is based — that have the capacity to process millions of pounds of meat and poultry per week.

“We are working closely with USDA to ensure that all necessary actions are taken to ensure a safe food supply,” BrucePac said in a statement. “We will not resume production until we are confident the issue has been resolved.”

Wasn’t there another big recall tied to listeria this year?

The BrucePac recall follows a massive recall of more than 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products by deli meat company Boar’s Head in July, also due to listeria contamination.

As a result of the multistate outbreak, which sickened dozens of people and was linked to 10 deaths, Boar’s Head permanently discontinued its liverwurst product and shut down its Jarratt, Va., facility.

What should I do if I suspect I ate contaminated food?

Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a healthcare provider. People in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the provider about eating the recalled products.

Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at (888) MPHotline or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov.

Former President Trump said that any telephone conversations he may have had with Vladimir Putin since leaving office were a “smart thing,” though he declined to confirm the recently reported calls during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday.

“I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. “But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing, in terms of a country. [Putin’s] got 2,000 nuclear weapons, and so do we.”

The comments were the latest in a long line of remarks in which Trump has praised the president of Russia, whom Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris recently called a “murderous dictator.”

Citing an unnamed source, a new book by veteran political journalist Bob Woodward reportedly says that Trump and Putin have spoken as many as seven times since Trump left office more than three years ago. Released Tuesday, the book, “War,” also reveals that Trump, while president, sent the Russian leader COVID-19 testing equipment for his own use.

When pressed on the topic by Q&A moderator John Micklethwait, editor in chief of Bloomberg News, Trump added, “I don’t talk about that. I don’t ever say it. But I can tell you what, Russia has never had a president that they respect so much.”

Speaking in front of a friendly audience over the course of roughly an hour, Trump shared his views on tariffs, monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. But he also went on meandering digressions, such as one that covered the safe return of a SpaceX Super Heavy-Starship rocket on Sunday (“I said, ‘What the hell … !’”), and even tried out a French accent while relating a squabble he’d had with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, over a threatened import tax on wine (“He’s a wise guy”).

On the subject of tariffs, Trump championed his plan to put them on various imported items.

Tariffs, Trump said, are “for protection of the companies that we have here and the new companies that will move in, because we’re going to have thousands of companies coming into this country. … We’re going to protect them when they come in, because we’re not going to have somebody undercut them.”

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has reported that tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in 2018 and 2019 amounted to “nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans.”

“I’m a believer in tariffs,” Trump said. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff.’ It’s my favorite word. It needs a public relations firm.”

Later, Micklethwait invoked the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to ask Trump if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the November election.

But Trump never directly answered the question, and falsely said there had been a peaceful transfer after the 2020 election, despite the storming of the Capitol, which saw more than 100 people injured and one attendee, Ashli Babbitt, fatally shot by a law enforcement officer. “It was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there,” said Trump, who shared other falsehoods about Jan. 6.

When Micklethwait asked the question again, Trump said of the journalist, “This is a man that has not been a big Trump fan over the years.”

Trump’s discursive appearance also saw him squabble with Micklethwait over a pejorative nickname for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and ridicule the moderator for his fiscal views. “You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff,” Trump said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

A Harris campaign spokesperson said the interview “was yet another reminder that a second Trump term is a risk Americans simply cannot take.”

“An angry, rambling Donald Trump couldn’t focus, had to be repeatedly reminded of the topic at hand, and whenever he did stake out a position, it was so extreme that no Americans would want it,” spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement.

The former president’s campaign moved quickly to position the appearance in Chicago as a win, sending out an email that said the former president “was in his element as he spoke passionately about restoring economic growth, prosperity, and opportunity for all Americans.”

“Kamala could NEVER,” the message said.

Micklethwait said that the Chicago club had invited Harris — whom Trump mentioned only fleetingly — to participate in a similar conversation, but she had “declined so far.”

On Tuesday, Trump also planned to rally voters in Atlanta and spoke with conservative media host Glenn Beck for his BlazeTV online program. He argued that immigration is voters’ greatest priority.

“The biggest thing that people are going to be looking at and voting on is what’s happening at our border where murderers are allowed to come in and where drug dealers are allowed to come in and just destroy our country. Literally destroy it,” he told Beck.

Harris frequently argues that Trump killed a bipartisan immigration bill that would have increased the number of agents at the border and reduced the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. because he was more concerned about keeping the issue alive to boost his election prospects than in solving the problem.

Trump also said he was serious about tasking billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk with reeling in federal spending.

“He feels there’s tremendous fraud, waste and abuse,” Trump said. “He could save a lot of money and make lives better.”

Times staff writer Seema Mehta in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Charter Communications, the company that runs the SportsNet channels for the Dodgers and Lakers, is cutting back programming on those channels.

Live coverage of the Dodgers and Lakers games is not expected to be affected. Instead, Charter is canceling “Behind the Sport” and reducing new episodes of “Backstage: Dodgers” and “Backstage: Lakers” to one per month, according to company spokeswoman Maureen Huff.

The Dodgers and Lakers are among many teams that have launched channels so fans could get 24/7 access to their favorite team. However, viewership data in Los Angeles and elsewhere has shown that most fans are primarily interested in watching the game.

Huff said “a few positions” have been eliminated.

“These programming adjustments are routine and do not signal any broader operational changes,” Huff said.

The changes come amid turmoil in the regional sports network industry. As consumers increasingly abandon cable and satellite broadcasts in favor of streaming, broadcast rights deals that pay teams based on an economic model of subscribers paying for a regional sports network, whether they watch it or not, have become outdated and often unprofitable.

The Bally Sports channels have been in bankruptcy court for 19 months. Warner Bros. Discovery last year dumped its four regional sports networks.

Charter runs no other regional sports network besides the SportsNet channels, which it inherited when it bought Time Warner Cable in 2016.

As a profitable company that generated $55 billion in revenue last year by providing broadband, cable, streaming and telephone services, Charter could not escape its $8.35-billion contract with the Dodgers or its $3-billion contract with the Lakers by filing for bankruptcy.

Lon Rosen, the Dodgers’ executive vice president, said Dodgers fans should not be concerned about SportsNet LA, which Charter markets under the Spectrum brand.

“We continue to have a good working relationship with Spectrum,” Rosen said.

The Dodgers own SportsNet LA. However, Charter owns SportsNet and has registered it as a separate entity. So, in theory, Charter could essentially tell the Lakers what Bally Sports told the Angels: Renegotiate at a discount, or risk SportsNet filing for bankruptcy, which could mean even less money for the team in a streaming-first future.

“Nothing like that has occurred,” said Tim Harris, the Lakers’ president of business operations. “Spectrum is an amazing partner and we look forward to working with them for years to come.”