Author: Phyllis Entis

Recalls and Alerts: August 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.

If you would like to receive automatic email alerts for all new articles posted on eFoodAlert, please submit your request using the sidebar link.

United States

  • Allergy Alert: Hummingbird Wholesale (Eugene, OR) recalls Organic Bulk Pinenuts (27.5-lb and 5-lb plastic bags wholesale packaging; Sold from 3/22/2012 to 8/16/2012, inclusive), due to the presence of undeclared peanuts. The recalled  bulk pinenuts were sold in bulk bins by natural food retail stores in Washington State and Oregon.

Canada

  • Allergy Alert: Mike and Mike’s Inc. recalls Organic Select Pine Nuts (160g; Lot codes BL441, BL992, BE977, BF345, BG216, BG493, BH088, BH426, BJ216, BJ364, BK035, BK412; UPC 8 94679 00010 8) due to the presence of undeclared peanuts. The recalled pinenuts were sold in Ontario.

Europe

  • Allergy Alert: Sainsbury’s recalls Sainsbury’s Breaded British Pork Schnitzels (250g; Use by 16 August 2012) because some packs of the product contain undeclared cheese.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

  • Pharmaceutical Product Safety Recall (Hong Kong): Orient Europharma Company Limited recalls Vimpat Tablets (50mg and 100mg; all lot codes), because the wholesaler had imported and distributed the unregistered version of the products containing soya lecithin coating instead of the registered version. Vimpat Tablets are manufactured in Germany by Schwarz Pharma Produktions GmbH.
  • Food Safety Bulletin (Philippines): Philippines Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources advises the public that shellfish collected at Dumanquilles Bay in Zamboanga del Sur, Murclelagos Bay in Zamboanga del Norte and Misamis Occidental, and the coastal waters of Milagros in Masbate remain positive for paralytic shellfish poison that is beyond the regulatory limit.

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.

Recalls and Alerts: August 14, 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.

If you would like to receive automatic email alerts for all new articles posted on eFoodAlert, please submit your request using the sidebar link.

United States

  • Allergy Alert: Clif Bar & Company recalls 12-pack Blueberry Crisp CLIF® Bars (Best by date 17MAR13G3; UPC 7-22252-30260-1; Blueberry Crisp CLIF Bars mislabeled in Chocolate Chip CLIF Bar individual wrappers with Best by date 17MAR13G3 and UPC 7-22252-10090-0), due to the presence of undeclared almonds. The recalled products were distributed to a limited number of stores east of the Mississippi River.
  • Food Safety Recall: Dale T. Smith and Sons Meat Packing (Draper, UT) recalls approximately 38,200 pounds of Boneless Beef “50/50,” “85/15,” “90/10,” “93/07” or “95/05”, and primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef (various weight combo bins; produced Aug 7, 2012; Est 4975), because the beef products may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The recalled products were distributed to wholesale and retail establishments in California and Salt Lake City, Utah, and were destined for further processing. The contamination problem was discovered through USDA lab testing and may have occurred as a result of refrigeration malfunction.
  • Food Safety Recall Update: USDA updates retail distribution information for various meat and poultry salad products that were recalled by Garden Fresh Foods due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
  • Outbreak Alert (Nebraska): The South Heartland District Health Department and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services are investigating 17 confirmed and 2 probable/suspect cases of Salmonella infections among residents, staff and visitors at the Blue Hill Care Center in Webster County. Four residents were hospitalized temporarily; one visitor remains in hospital. The source of the outbreak is under investigation.
  • Outbreak Alert (Illinois): Will County Health Department is investigating a cluster of E. coli cases – including seven involving children – that may be associated with beaches in the Wilmington-Essex area, according to a report in The Daily Journal.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Zarda Foods, LLC (Blue Springs, MO) that a July 2012 inspection of the company’s processing facility revealed serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulation.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Trafon Group, Inc., dba Star Meat (Guaynabo, PR) that a January/February 2012 inspection of the company’s seafood processing and importer facility in San Juan, PR found serious violations of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Sea World, Inc. (St. Thomas, VI) that a March 2012 inspection of the company’s seafood warehouse establishment found serious violations of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Ciresa Formaggi, Snc (Introbio, Italy) that a January 2012 inspection of the company’s cheese processing facility found serious deviations from the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulation for foods.

Canada

  • Food Safety Recall: Highline Mushrooms (Leamington, ON) recalls Highline Mushrooms Sliced White Mushrooms (227g/8oz containers; Lot #L410805; Best before 12AU15; UPC 7 71163 00005 2) and Compliments Sliced White Mushrooms (227g/8oz containers; Lot #L410805; Best before 12AU15; UPC 0 68820 10090 4), because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled products were distributed in Ontario, and may also have been distributed in other provinces.
  • Food Safety Recall: Leadbetter Foods Inc. recalls Leadbetters Lean Ground Beef Tubes (4 x 400g; Code #1704; UPC 8 73587 00164 3) due to harmful extraneous material contamination. The recalled product was sold in Ontario.

Europe

Australia and New Zealand

  • Food Safety Recall (New Zealand): Frucor Beverages recalls New Zealand Natural Bottled Still Spring Water (6 x 1.5L multipacks; Best before 24/10/2013 to 30/10/13, inclusive), following a consumer complaint identifying algal growth in a bottle.

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.

Canada Moves To Streamline Food Inspection System

“The world in which the CFIA operates is changing and the CFIA needs to change with it.”

– Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), August 9, 2012

On June 7, 2012 the Canadian government introduced the Safe Food For Canadians Act. This legislation, once passed into law, will ensure that the same food safety criteria apply to both domestic and imported food commodities, and will consolidate several different food inspection regimes into a single, unified approach.

Some elements of the proposed law include:

  • Licensing of all food commodity importers, exporters and domestic producers;
  • Puts the onus on importers to ensure that their off-shore suppliers produce foods under conditions that meet Canadian domestic production requirements;
  • Provides inspectors with full authority to examine any documents – including those stored on computers – during the course of an inspection;
  • Prohibits anyone from selling a food commodity that is the subject of a recall order;
  • Reaffirms CFIA’s mandatory recall authority;
  • Allows the Government to recover costs incurred during “…the inspection, moving, seizure and detention, forfeiture, disposal, return or release…” of any item; and
  • Protects those exercising their functions from liability for their good faith actions while performing their duties.

Under Canada’s parliamentary system, with a strong majority government in place, the Safe Food for Canadians Act will almost certainly become law with very few amendments.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) – charged with enforcing food safety laws in Canada – already is preparing for the new mandates. On August 9th, CFIA released for comment a draft of an Improved Food Inspection Model.

I find a lot to like in this draft document, such as:

  • Mandatory licensing of food production facilities, importers, and exporters, providing for annual renewals, and for suspension or cancellation of licenses, where certain criteria are met.
  • Places the onus on an importer to verify that its supplier complies with the same criteria as domestic food producers/processors.
  • Applies a risk-based set of criteria to determine the intensity and frequency of oversight.
  • Clearly describes the inspection process.
  • Enunciates the mandatory components of a licensed facility’s preventative control plan.
  • Establishes that it is the responsibility of industry to comply with food safety laws, and it is the responsibility of CFIA to police/enforce that compliance.

What’s not to like?

Lip service to transparency: suspensions and cancellations of licenses “may” be posted on the CFIA’s external website.

Wiggle room for old or sub-standard facilities to be “grandfathered”: Although the draft policy clearly requires that the “design and layout of food establishments prevents cross-contamination…” there is a provision allowing for procedures to “mitigate the risk” in cases where plant design does not meet standards for reducing contamination.

What would I like to see?

1. CFIA should commit to the following transparency initiatives:

  • timely posting of basic information on all licensed facilities, including name, contact information, activities, product and process information and compliance status;
  • timely posting of all license suspensions and cancellations, including the reason(s) for suspension or cancellation of a license;
  • regular updates to the current compliance status / inspection outcome for all licensed facilities;
  • recall notices should explain whether the recall was triggered as a result of a company’s own food safety verification, actions carried out by a government agency (e.g, routine surveillance program), customer complaints, or third-party testing;
  • recall notices should state whether a pathogen was found in a sample of the specific product under recall, whether it was found in a different production batch, or whether it was present in the production environment, instead of reporting that the recalled product “may be contaminated with…” a pathogen; and
  • retail-level distribution information should be provided for all Class I recalls and Allergy Alerts.

2. CFIA should phase out the grandfathering of old, outdated, or non-compliant facilities by making full compliance a condition of license renewals.

I have long been an advocate for a single food safety agency system in the USA – one that would consolidate the food enforcement arms of FDA, USDA, and the several other federal agencies that also dabble in this arena. The Safe Food for Canadians Act, coupled with CFIA’s Improved Food Inspection Model proposal represents a major advance in the right direction.