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 Update: USDA updates retail distribution list for various meatballs and other frozen, ready-to-eat meat and poultry products recalled by Buona Vita, Inc. due to potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
- Outbreak Alert: An outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea has struck 99 out of 1918 passengers and 12 of 836 crew members on Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Manhattan, NY on July 20th and will be met by two CDC Vessel Sanitation Program environmental health officers and an epidemiologist. The cause of the outbreak is not yet known.
Canada
- Food Safety Recall: Sobeys Quebec Inc. recalls Earth Greens brand Organic Italian Blend Salad (198g plastic clamshell package; Product of USA; UPC 8 18431 00107 3; Best Before 2012 JL 13; Lot code 2217915MI), due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled salad is a product of Misionero Vegetables (Gonzales, California) and was imported by Sobeys Quebec Inc. (Montreal, QC) for distribution in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Nunavut.
Europe
- Food Safety Recall (Denmark): Falengreen A/S recalls Habits Grated Mozzarella Cheese (200g bag; Best before 02/10-2012; Lot No. L 1023663), due to mold growth in bags of the product. The recalled cheese was sold in Net shops.
- Animal Feed Safety Notification (EU #2012.1007): Aflatoxins in maize from Argentina, via the Netherlands; distributed to Belgium.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.1009): Histamine in frozen raw mackerel from India; distributed to the United Kingdom.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.1010): Salmonella Stanley and Campylobacter jejuni in chilled whole chickens from Germany; distributed to Denmark.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.1011): Parasitic infestation of long grain rice from Italy; distributed to the Czech Republic.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2012.1012): Anisakis infestation of mackerel from Norway; distributed to Italy.
Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands
- Pharmaceutical Product Safety Alert/Recall (Hong Kong): The Department of Health advises that Westone Laboratories, Inc. (USA) has recalled Oto-Ease® Ear Lubricant, due to potential contamination with pathogenic bacteria and mold. Some of the recalled product may have been exported to Hong Kong. Consumers should stop using this product immediately and consult their healthcare providers.
Australia and New Zealand
- Outbreak Alert (New Zealand): NZ Herald reports that two elderly women died after contracting Listeria, found in meat supplied to the Hawkes Bay Hospital. Two other patients also diagnosed with Listeria infections. It’s unclear whether the patients had contracted the illnesses while in hospital. The meat was recalled by Bay Cuisine Ltd. on July 16th, due to potential Listeria contamination. Bay Cuisine supplied its meat products to Hawkes Bay Hospital’s kitchen and cafeteria, in addition to the Mad Butcher and Preston shop chains.
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.
- A&P
- Big Y® World Class Market®
- BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc.
- Bloom
- Brookshire’s
- Costco Wholesale Corporation (US stores)
- Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd.
- EDEKA (Germany)
- Food City
- Food Lion
- Giant Food LLC
- Gros Cidac (Italy)
- Hannaford Brothers Co.
- Harris Teeter
- H-E-B
- The Kroger Company*
- Lucky Supermarkets
- Price Chopper
- Publix
- Raley’s
- Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc.
- Safeway**
- Sainsbury’s
- ShopRite
- Stop & Shop
- Sweetbay Supermarkets
- Target
- Top Food & Drug
- Tops Friendly Markets
- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
- Wegmans
- Whole Foods Market
- WinCo Foods
- Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc.
*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.
eFoodAlert 
Hi: Got a letter today from Health Canada, our old stomping ground. It advised that:
“Depending on when and how a bacteriophage product is applied and used, such a preparation could be considered either a food additive or a processing aid. To date, Health Canada has evaluated the safety and efficacy of one commercial bacteriophage product with intended use to increase food safety, as a processing aid.
The bacteriophage product, Listex PI 00, is a phage produced by EBI Food Safety (Wageningen, The Netherlands) that exhibits specific activity against the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. The data provided by the company demonstrated that Listex PI 00 bacteriophage effectively reduces the concentration of L. monocytogenes by 1-3 logs when applied to the following food products: surface-ripened soft cheese, cabbage, cooked sliced ham, cooked sliced turkey breast, hot dogs, minced raw meat, mixed seafood, smoked salmon, raw salmon fillet, and raw catfish fillet. A Letter of No Objection for the use of Listex P100 as a processing aid in the above products was issued to EBI Food Safety on September 3rd, 2010. ”
As you know, I have been interested in applications of phages in medicine and food processing since I retired in 1998; however, while I have been able to keep up with approvals of phage products in USA , this is the first I have heard of in Canada – no answer was given as to whether any company is using this technology here. It seems to me that the issuance of this Letter of No Objection should have resulted in some media coverage as similar approvals did in the USA.
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