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
- Allergy Alert: DZH Import & Export Inc. (Brooklyn, NY) recalls Mountains Dried Mushroom (1.23 oz/35g plastic tray; Best before NOV 30, 2013; UPC 6931653104064; Product of China), due to undeclared sulfites. The recalled product was sold in New York City.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Genesis Herb Company, L.L.C. (Monroeville, OH) that a May-July 2012 inspection of the company’s Canton dietary supplement manufacturing facility revealed significant violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations for dietary supplements.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns W.H. Walker & Sons, Inc. (Clintondale, NY) that a September 2012 inspection of the company’s juice processing facility found serious deviations from the FDA’s juice processing regulation.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns M.D.R. Fitness Corp (Sunrise, FL) that a July-August 2012 inspection of the company’s facility revealed a failure to comply with the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations for dietary supplements.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Scilabs Nutraceuticals Inc. (Irvine, CA) that a July-August 2012 inspection of the company’s dietary supplement manufacturing facility found serious violations of FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations in Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling, or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Gills Onions, LLC (Oxnard, CA) that a July 5, 2012 and Ausut 27, 2012 collection of samples yielded isolates of Listeria monocytogenes that are indistinguishable from each other by PFGE (genetic fingerprint) analysis.
- FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Consolidated Marketing Unlimited, Inc. (Sunrise, FL) that an April-May 2012 inspection of the company’s facility found serious violations of FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice in the Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements.
Canada
- Allergy Alert: Terra International Food Inc. recalls Rising Sun Farms Lemon Thyme Balsamic Dressing (354mL; Best before 06/29/16; UPC 0 18646 00068 1), due to undeclared sulphites. The recalled product was supplied to retailers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba.
- Allergy Alert: Yum Yum Food (Toronto, ON) recalls Yum Yum Food Shrimp Wonton (200g; UPC 8 30121 10015 6) and Yum Yum Food Shrimp Dumpling (170g; UPC 8 30121 10016 3) due to undeclared egg and milk. The recalled products were distributed in Ontario.
Europe
- Food Safety Withdrawal (Sweden): Findus withdraws Lasagna (375g pouch; Part #63957) after test results show that the product contained horse meat.
- Enforcement Action (UK): Food Standards Agency (FSA) raids Peter Boddy Licensed Slaughterhouse (Todmorden, West Yorkshire), which is believed to have supplied horse carcasses to Farmbox Meats Ltd. (Llandre, Aberystwyth), which also was raided as part of the investigation. FSA has suspended operations at both plants, detailed all meat found and seized paperwork, including customer lists.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2013.0178): Parasitic infestation with Anisakis of wet salted cod fillets from the Faroe Islands; distributed to Italy.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2013.0179): Aflatoxins in maize from Greece; distributed to Cyprus.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2013.0181): Aflatoxins in almond powder from Ghana; distributed to Belgium.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2013.0182): Salmonella enteritidis in frozen beef trimmings from Poland; distributed to Sweden.
- Food Safety Notification (EU #2013.0183): Salmonella in pasteurized cow milk cheese from France; distributed to Belgium and France.
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 website.
- 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 
I’ve been visiting your website for over a year and it’s one of the best. You are knowledgeable about these things so maybe you can explain something to me that no one else has been able to.
In today’s alerts, we have pasteurized cow’s milk cheese from France being recalled for salmonella. Wouldn’t the pasteurization have killed the salmonella in the milk?
Last summer, the FDA warned to not eat the recalled cantaloupes because they thought the salmonella was inside the melons as well as outside. How would salmonella get inside the melon?
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Hi Rosie,
Yes, pasteurization should have killed Salmonella; however, the bacteria could have reentered the milk after pasteurization (perhaps during the cheese-making process) if conditions were not completely sanitary. Alternatively, it’s possible that the pasteurization step was faulty and that the milk was not kept hot enough for long enough to kill the Salmonella.
As for the melons, Salmonella is able to enter the cantaloupe through breaks or defects in the rind or through the stem scar (where the cantaloupe was attached to the plant).
I hope you find these explanations useful. Please post any other questions that come to mind.
Phyllis
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Thank you very much.
If salmonella were to enter in a melon through breaks or defects wouldn’t it be localized around that break or defect or would it then be able to spread through some kind of osmosis throughout the entire melon?
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Even if it remained localized, it could be spread by a utensil when the melon is cut.
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I’m usually a lurker, but wanted to pop out of lurkdom to let you know how much I appreciate this blog. Thank you for the effort you put in to compiling the info and sharing with others. =)
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Thank you so much for those kind words, Glenda. You’ve made my day!
Phyllis
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