Tag: Salmonella

Recalls and Alerts: September 10, 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

  • OTC Pharmaceutical Product Safety Recall: Qualitest (subsidiary of Endo Health Solution) recalls Hydrocodone Bitartrate and Acetaminophen Tablets, USP 10mg/500mg (100-ct; Lot #C1440512A; Expiry 12/13), because some of the tablets may exceed the weight specification and could be super-potent for the active ingredients. The recalled tablets were distributed between May 14 and August 3, 2012 to wholesale distributors and retail pharmacies nationwide.
  • FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Centrum Valley Farms, LLP (Clarion, IA) that  an April-May 2012 inspection of the company’s shell egg production facility found that the facility had serious violations of the Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation regulation. Furthermore, samples taken during the inspection revealed the presence of Salmonella Heidelberg in two of the six hen houses at the South site of the facility.

Canada

  • Allergy Alert: Valley Flax Flour recalls Valley Flax Flour Wheat Free Pancake Mix (500g; Codes PC12145, PC12199 and PC12202), due to the presence of undeclared gluten. The recalled product was sold in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
  • Unauthorized Medical Test Kit Alert: Health Canada advises consumers that CuraHerbDistributor (curaherbdistributor.com) is attempting to sell online unlicensed home-use HIV test kits for use with urine, saliva and blood samples. There are currently no HIV test kits authorized for home use in Canada. Health Canada has not licenced “Home Aware” tests kits for any of the following conditions indicated on the website, namely syphilis, trichomonas vaginalis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis (B/C) or herpes simplex.

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Food Safety Enforcement Action (Argentina): The National Service for Health and Food Safety (SENASA) confiscated and destroyed 750 kilograms of meat products that were found to have been transported without refrigeration.

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.

Chamberlain Farm Produce Inc. Recalls Watermelons – Update

Chamberlain Farm Produce, the Owensville, Indiana farm whose cantaloupes were blamed for 204 cases of Salmonella Typhimurium infections earlier this summer, has recalled all watermelons produced during the past growing season.

According to a Press Release posted last Friday on the website of Schnucks Markets, Inc., the recalled watermelons may have been contaminated with Salmonella newport. Notice of this recall has not yet appeared on the FDA website.

FDA inspected Chamberlain Farm Produce from August 14th to 16th, after traceback investigations identified the southwest Indiana melon grower as the likely source of the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak. As part of the investigation, FDA collected environmental samples and cantaloupe samples from the farm. Some of those cantaloupe samples showed the presence of the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium.

On August 23rd, Chamberlain recalled all of its cantaloupes from the 2012 growing season. None of the retailers that carried the Chamberlain cantaloupes were identified in the recall notice. And, with the exception of Schnucks Markets, not a single retail grocery chain that carried the melons posted a recall notice on its website.

There is no indication whether any illnesses have been associated with the recalled watermelons. Nor do we know whether the contamination was discovered by FDA, the Indiana State Department of Health, Chamberlain itself, or some other party.

On August 16th, eFoodAlert learned from the Kentucky Department for Public Health that, in addition to cantaloupe samples, one watermelon sample had tested positive for Salmonella. At that time, detailed serotyping and genetic profiling of the Salmonella strain was still in progress. No further mention has been made of watermelon either in the CDC or the FDA investigation updates.

UPDATE (Sept 10, 2012): The Kentucky Department for Public Health has told eFoodAlert that there is “No connection that we know of” between the watermelon recall and the outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium that was linked to cantaloupes from the same grower.

Let’s hope that FDA and Chamberlain are more forthcoming with retail distribution information on the watermelons that they have been on the cantaloupes.

Chamberlain Farm Produce Inc. Recalls Watermelons

Chamberlain Farm Produce, the Owensville, Indiana farm whose cantaloupes were blamed for 204 cases of Salmonella Typhimurium infections earlier this summer, has recalled all watermelons produced during the past growing season.

According to a Press Release posted last Friday on the website of Schnucks Markets, Inc., the recalled watermelons may have been contaminated with Salmonella newport. Notice of this recall has not yet appeared on the FDA website.

FDA inspected Chamberlain Farm Produce from August 14th to 16th, after traceback investigations identified the southwest Indiana melon grower as the likely source of the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak. As part of the investigation, FDA collected environmental samples and cantaloupe samples from the farm. Some of those cantaloupe samples showed the presence of the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium.

On August 23rd, Chamberlain recalled all of its cantaloupes from the 2012 growing season. None of the retailers that carried the Chamberlain cantaloupes were identified in the recall notice. And, with the exception of Schnucks Markets, not a single retail grocery chain that carried the melons posted a recall notice on its website.

There is no indication whether any illnesses have been associated with the recalled watermelons. Nor do we know whether the contamination was discovered by FDA, the Indiana State Department of Health, Chamberlain itself, or some other party.

On August 16th, eFoodAlert learned from the Kentucky Department for Public Health that, in addition to cantaloupe samples, one watermelon sample had tested positive for Salmonella. At that time, detailed serotyping and genetic profiling of the Salmonella strain was still in progress. No further mention has been made of watermelon either in the CDC or the FDA investigation updates.

Let’s hope that FDA and Chamberlain are more forthcoming with retail distribution information on the watermelons that they have been on the cantaloupes.