Month: February 2012

Recalls and Alerts: February 15, 2012

Here is today’s list of food safety recalls, product withdrawals, allergy alerts and miscellaneous compliance issues. The live links will take you directly to the official recall notices and company news releases that contain detailed information for each recall and alert.

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United States

  • Food Safety Recall: AA Meat Products Corporation (Maywood, CA; Espt. 21492) recalls various meat and poultry products, produced between January 11, 2011 and February 8, 2012, because they may have been produced without the benefit of federal inspection. The recalled products were sold within California. Please see the recall notice for details.
  • Outbreak Alert: Forty people at the Carriage House Estates retirement community have been quarantined after having become infected with norovirus. The facility has undergone extensive cleaning and sanitation, and visitors are asked to wear masks and gloves to prevent further spread of the virus.
  • Outbreak Alert: Framingham State University is reporting an increase in the number of cases of gastroenteritis over the past month. Norovirus is suspected.
  • Outbreak Alert Update: The Campylobacter outbreak associated with consumption of raw milk from Your Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, PA has grown to 71 confirmed victims. At least 9 people have been hospitalized. Confirmed cases are reported from Pennsylvania (62), Maryland (4), West Virginia (3) and New Jersey (2).
  • Outbreak Alert: Twelve people in five states have been infected with a shiga toxin-producing strain of E. coli O26. The infections are due most probably to infected raw clover sprouts served at Jimmy John’s restaurant outlets.

Canada

  • Consumer Product Safety Alert: Health Canada advises Canadians not to buy an unregistered, highly toxic pesticide product being imported from China and sold in various retail outlets as “insecticide chalk.” The Insecticide Chalk is not registered for use in Canada. Children are especially at risk from insecticide chalk because they can easily mistake the product for blackboard or sidewalk chalk and play with it or put it in their mouths.
  • Dietary Supplement Safety Alert: Health Canada advises Canadians that using “MMS”, also known as Miracle Mineral Solution or Miracle Mineral Supplement may cause serious health problems. The product information lists sodium chlorite as an ingredient and is promoted as a substance that can cleanse toxins from the human body. There are no therapeutic products containing sodium chlorite authorized for oral consumption by humans in Canada.

Europe

  • Food Safety Alert (Russia): Russia has banned cheese imports from Ukraine over the failure of three Ukrainian producers to meet Russian food standards. The action has resulted in the suspension five tons of Ukrainian cheese, and has prevented the import of 128,500 tons of cheese.
  • Food Safety Recall (Denmark): Skare Meat Packers K/S recalls Vilstrup Farm minced pork/veal, 8-12% (500g; Packaged 06.02.12; Best before 14.02.12; modified atmosphere packaging), due to possible Salmonella contamination. The recalled meat was sold at LIDL stores.
  • Outbreak Alert (Russia): Eighteen kindergarten children in Chita developed gastroenteritis. Three of the children were hospitalized and the others were treated at home. Norovirus was confirmed in four of the sick children.
  • Food Safety Notification (2012.0240): Norovirus in oysters from the Netherlands; distributed to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
  • Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.0241): Suspicion of fraud in relation to horse carcasses from Hungary; distributed to Italy.
  • Dietary Supplement Safety Notification (EU #2012.0242 & 2012.0243): Unauthorized tadalafil in food supplement from China; distributed to Finland.
  • Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.0244): Tin in baked beans in tomato sauce from Italy; distributed to Malta.
  • Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.0247): Aflatoxins in dried figs from Turkey; distributed to Slovenia.
  • Dietary Supplement Safety Notification (EU #2012.0248): Unauthorized sildenafil in food supplement from Spain; distributed to France, Germany, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

  • Dietary Supplement Safety Notification (EU #2012.0248): Unauthorized sildenafil in food supplement from Spain; distributed to France, Germany, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Dietary Supplement Safety Notification (EU #2012.0248): Unauthorized sildenafil in food supplement from Spain; distributed to France, Germany, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela.

Some supermarket chains post recall notices on their web sites for the convenience of customers. To see whether a recalled food was carried by your favorite supermarket, follow the live link to the supermarket’s recall web site.

*The Kroger umbrella encompasses numerous supermarket, marketplace and convenience store chains, listed on the Kroger corporate home page.
**Includes Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs and Pak N’ Save.

Jimmy Johns + Sprouts = E. coli O26 Outbreak

Raw clover sprouts served at Jimmy Johns restaurants are to blame for an outbreak of E. coli O26 – a shiga-toxin producing strain of E. coli – that has sickened at least 12 people in 5 states, according to a report released today by CDC. The illnesses developed between December 25, 2011 to January 15, 2012.

The outbreak-related illnesses were confirmed in Iowa (5), Missouri (3), Kansas (2), Arkansas (1), and Wisconsin (1). Two people were hospitalized.

Ten of the 12 outbreak victims reported having eaten at a total of 9 different Jimmy Johns restaurant locations in the week before becoming ill. Eight of the 10 said that they had consumed a sandwich containing raw sprouts; 9 reported eating a sandwich that contained lettuce. FDA has been conducting traceback investigations, with the following preliminary result:

FDA’s traceback investigation is ongoing. Preliminary traceback information has identified a common lot of clover seeds used to grow clover sprouts served at Jimmy John’s restaurant locations where ill persons ate. FDA and states conducted a traceback that identified two separate sprouting facilities; both used the same lot of seed to grow clover sprouts served at these Jimmy John’s restaurant locations. Preliminary distribution information indicates that sprouts grown from this seed lot were sold at a number of restaurant and grocery store locations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin, and were likely distributed beyond these states. On February 10, 2012, the seed supplier initiated notification of sprouting facilities that received this lot of clover seed to stop using it. Investigations are ongoing to identify other locations that may have sold clover sprouts grown from this seed lot.

This is the third outbreak in five years that has been traced to raw sprouts consumed at Jimmy Johns restaurants. In 2008, twenty-one University of Colorado students fell ill after eating items containing raw alfalfa sprouts at two Jimmy Johns locations; 14 of the 21 students were confirmed to have been infected with E. coli O157:NM. And in 2010/2011, a 26-state (plus the District of Columbia) Salmonella outbreak was traced to contaminated Tiny Greens Alfalfa Sprouts or Spicy Sprouts served at Jimmy Johns restaurant outlets. That outbreak sickened 140 people, and sent almost one in four of the victims to hospital.

A single lot of clover seeds appears to have been the source of the contaminated sprouts, based on FDA’s traceback investigation. The agency has not yet determined where – other than Jimmy Johns – the clover sprouts grown from these seeds were distributed. While CDC has not issued specific recommendations, I urge eFoodAlert readers to avoid all clover sprouts – including those grown at home.

Lushlife Gardens Saladini Sprouts NOT Recalled

Last autumn, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Saladini brand Alfalfa Sprouts produced by Lushlife Gardens (Milford, NJ). The state reported its finding to FDA.

FDA inspectors visited the sprout processing facility and carried out an inspection and environmental sampling that lasted for several days – November 15th to 21st, to be precise. Two of the 40 environmental swab samples yielded Listeria monocytogenes, demonstrating the continued presence of the human pathogen in the processing facility. In addition, inspectors documented insanitary conditions in the sprouting facility, including condensate dripping from dirty fabric onto seeds and sprouts.

In spite of a confirmed finding of Listeria monocytogenes – a potentially deadly microbe – in a sample of the company’s alfalfa sprouts, in spite of the confirmed presence of the same strain of Listeria monocytogenes in the processing environment, and in spite of documented insanitary conditions, the contaminated Saladini Alfalfa Sprouts were never recalled.

As is typical, FDA gave Lushlife Gardens a deadline for taking necessary corrective actions to clean up its processing facility and procedures; however, the company’s January 2, 2012 response letter was found by FDA to be inadequate, as it did not provide documentation of the corrective actions that the company claimed to have taken. So FDA issued a Warning Letter to Lushlife Gardens on January 18th, which gave the company 15 working days to notify the agency of the steps taken to correct the violations. The Warning Letter included the following:

“During the inspection, the FDA investigators collected sample number 689489 consisting of 40 environmental swabs. Analysis of two swabs (one on the floor just inside the green house entrance and another on the floor underneath row (b)(4) of (b)(4) yielded L. monocytogenes. One of the isolates was indistinguishable from the strain that was isolated by the NYAG as analyzed with pulse gel electrophoresis (PFGE). We have attached a copy of the analysis which demonstrates that the isolates match for two different kinds of PFGE tests. These observations suggest that the L. monocytogenes isolated from your product by NYAG likely came from the facility.

Our investigators also observed condensate dripping onto seed and sprouts from black fabric, rope and string. The black fabric was not adequately cleaned and sanitized as evidenced by apparent mold growing on the fabric. These conditions are reasonably likely to result in contamination of your product with L. monocytogenes.”

I have to wonder why FDA remained silent in the face of these observations. I realize that the batch of sprouts documented by New York State to be contaminated probably had expired, but it’s clear from the FDA Warning Letter that the risk of contamination was ongoing. While the agency may not have been in a strong position to press for a recall of other production lots, it could have  – and, in my opinion, should have– issued a warning to the public. After all, as the Warning Letter said,

“The conditions observed during the inspection and the finding of L. monocytogenes in your facility cause the sprouts processed at your facility to be adulterated within the meaning of Section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S. C.§342(a)(4)], in that your sprouts have been prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health.”

It has now been more than one year since Congress passed, and the President signed, the Food Safety Modernization Act. This law, among other tools, gave FDA mandatory recall authority for the first time in its history. Does FDA have the backbone to use its new authority for the protection of the public?

Or is it “business as usual” at the agency on which US consumers depend to keep our food supply safe?