Recalls and Alerts: December 9-11, 2021

TAINTED — Click on the image to start reading now.

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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Interested in learning more about food safety and the history of foodborne disease outbreaks and investigations? Click on the TAINTED menu at the top of the page to read a short excerpt, then follow the buy links to add a digital or print copy to your personal library.

United States

Allergy Alert: Bokhary Foods Inc. recalls GODAVARI brand dried apricots (7 oz and 14 oz clear plastic-film bags; distributed in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut through retail stores between 7/10/2021 and 11/24/21; UPC 0 03658 50001 4 & 0 03657 5001 5, respectively) due to undeclared sulphites.

Canada

OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION UPDATE: The Public Health Agency of Canada now has received reports of 79 laboratory-confirmed cases of Salmonella Enteritidis illness investigated in British Columbia (34), Alberta (28), Saskatchewan (4), Manitoba (11) and Ontario (2). The Ontario cases reported travel to Alberta and British Columbia. Although the source of the outbreak has not yet been confirmed, many of the outbreak victims reported having consumed fresh avocados purchased from grocery stores or served at restaurants before their illness. The avocados were distributed in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Allergy Alert: Belmont Meat Products Ltd. recalls Great Value brand Chicken Burgers (904g / 8 x 113g; All Best Before dates up to and including 2022 JL 27; UPC 6 28915 82529 9) and Belmont Meats brand Chicken Burgers (852g / 6 x 142g; All Best Before dates up to and including 2022 JL 27; UPC 0 60597 38361 0) due to undeclared egg.

Allergy Alert: Exclusive Candy & Novelty Ltd. recalls multiple Twinkle Baker Décor brand frosting tubes and icing gels due to improperly declared milk. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Food Safety Recall: La Champignonerie Abitibi (Gallichan, QC) recalls multiple products packed in 250-ml and 500-ml glass jars due to improper processing/packing conditions. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Europe

OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION UPDATE: FSA reports that since 2015, there have been almost 900 cases of Salmonella infections linked to the handling of specific frozen mice products used for the feeding of reptiles. The recall listed below is linked to this outbreak investigation. The FSA is instructing reptile owners and others who have a supply of the affected frozen mice to return them to the place of purchase so they can be carefully disposed of. The FSA and partners are also warning people to be extra careful when handling any frozen rodents including mice product and packaging, not just the batches identified, due to the risk of Salmonella from other batches linked to this recall.

Allergy Alert (France): AGIS recalls AGIS brand Nems au porc / Pork spring rolls (280g; Lot 21/327; Use by 23/12/2021) due to undeclared soy and gluten.

Allergy Alert (France): BIOCOOP recalls BIOCOOP brand CHORIZO FORT SANS SEL NITRITE / Strong chorizo, nitrite-free (~1 kg; Lot 121285223; Best before 20/12/2021) due to undeclared nuts.

Allergy Alert (Italy): Arche Naturprodukte GmbH recalls Arche Naturkuche brand Funghi Shiitake / Shiitake mushrooms (40g; Lots 31/08/22 & 30/11/22) due to undeclared sulphites.

Allergy Alert (Italy): CASEIFICIO PUGLIESE F.lli Radicci S.p.A. recalls SELEX Vivi Bene brand RICOTTA SENZA LATTOSIO / Lactose-free ricotta (250g; Lot #L21307; Best before 18/12/2021) due to excessive lactose levels.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): Delhaize recalls Delhaize brand Chipolata de poulet / Chicken sausages (Lot #211130036 & 211130025; Expiry date 10/12/2021) and Delhaize brand Burger de poulet nature / Chicken burgers (Lot 211130036; Expiry 10/12/2021) due to foreign matter (metal fragments) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): Aldi recalls Burger de poulet / Chicken burgers (250g; Lots 211130024 & 211130036; Expiry 10/12/2021) due to foreign matter (metal fragments) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): AFSCA orders recall of Fromage St Nectaire / cheese (220g & 230g; Multiple lot codes and Best before dates) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): Cora recalls Saint-Nectaire AOP Laitier cheese (Lots GF042GFA + GF042GGA; Use by 22/12/2021, 25/12/2021 & 26/12/2021) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): Colruyt recalls Colruyt brand Choucroute de Champagne-Ardenne à la graisse d’oie / Sauerkraut with goose fat (600g; Lot 21050611; Best before 14/1/2022) due to foreign matter (metal fragments) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Belgium): AFSCA recalls Henglein brand Frische Knöpfle Eierspätzle / Egg dumplings (400g; All lots beginning with 42442; Best before 09/12/2021) due to foreign matter (pieces of blue plastic) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): DENOUAL ROLAND SARL recalls Les Délices de la Belle Noë brand Saucisson sec / Dry sausage (All Best before dates between 31/01/2022 and 27/02/2022) due to Salmonella contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): DENOUAL ROLAND SARL recalls Les Délices de la Belle Noë brand Saucisse sèche / Dry sausage (All Best before dates between 31/01/2022 and 15/02/2022) due to Salmonella contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): SICA SICODIS recalls SICOLY brand Préparation de fruits à l’abricot / Apricot preserves (360g; Lots 525121/01, 525121/02, 525121/03, 525121/04; Best before 23/03/2023) due to foreign matter (glass splinters) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): SERRANO HERNANDEZ RAFAEL Ferme de la Biscarrere recalls el biscarron brand fromage au pate molle / soft cheese (Lot 27/10/2021-8/12/2021; Best by 08/12/2021) due to Staphylococcus and staphylococcal enterotoxin contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): FROMAGERIE LE CENTURION recalls Saint Nectaire AOP laitier cheese (190g; Lot #GF044GFA; Best before dates from 25/12/2021 to 29/12/2021) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): COOPERATIVE U recalls U SAVEURS brand Cantal Entre Deux AOP au Lait cru / Raw milk cheese (220g; Lots 16821443 & 16821452; Use by 07/12/2021 and 12/12/2021, respectively) due to shigatoxin-producing E. coli contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): SA SODIMON Systeme U recalls Normanville lait cru sur paille 23%mg FE / Raw milk cheese on straw, 23% butterfat (Use by dates from 06/11/2021 to 09/12/2021) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): FROMAGERIE LE CENTURION recalls Saint Nectaire AOP laitier cheese (190g; Multiple lot codes and Best before dates) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Food Safety Recall (France): TREO recalls TREO brand TORRONE/NOUGAT MIX (amande, noix, noix de cajou, pistache) / Torrone / nougat mix with almonds, walnuts, cashews and pistachios (150g; Lot 190921; Best before 30/08/2022) due to aflatoxin contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): Société Fromagère du Livradois recalls Nouaille brand Cantal entre deux au lait cru / raw milk cheese (Various package formats, lot codes and Best before dates) due to E. coli O26:H11 contamination. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Food Safety Recall (France): Société Fromagère du Livradois recalls Livradois brand Cantal Entre Deux lait cru / raw milk cheese (Intact wheels; Lot 16821; Best before dates between 02/01/2022 and 02/02/2022) due to E. coli O26:H11 contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): MONOPRIX recalls MONOPRIX GOURMET brand Cantal Entre Deux and Gourmet Cantal Entre Deux / raw milk cheese (Lots 16821451 & 16821; Use by 28/11/2021 & 07/12/2021, respectively) due to E. coli O26:H11 contamination.

Food Safety Recall (France): Carrefour recalls CARREFOUR Classic brand DUO HARICOTS VERTS & FLAGEOLETS / Stringbeans and green beans (720g; Lots 1470 L:U2M281B07 & 1470 L:U2M272A07; Best before 30/09/2025) due to foreign matter (insect larvae) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Germany): Fleischerei Beier recalls Bratwurst mit Knoblauch, geräuchert & Bratwurst mit Kümmel / Smoked bratwurst sausage with garlic and Bratwurst sausage with caraway seeds (Produced 22.11.2021) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Germany): Gut von Holstein recalls Gut von Holstein Weihnachtskäse 60% Fett i.Tr. / Christmas cheese, 60% fat (Lots 12102021T6, 13102021T6, 14102021T6, 20102021T2, 21102021T2, 26102021T3, 27102021T1; Use by 12.03.2022, 13.03.2022, 14.03.2022, 20.03.2022, 21.03.2022) due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Italy): SALUMIFICIO ZERBINI GIOVANNI & FIGLI S.N.C recalls SALAME / Salami (420g; Lot #261021; Best before 31/01/2022) due to Salmonella contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Italy): ENTREMONT ITALIA SRL recalls CF G300 PLATEAU FORM FRANCESI / French cheese (300g; Mulitple lot codes; Best before 4, 5 & 6 January 2022) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Luxembourg): Colruyt recalls Choucroute de Champagne-Ardenne à la graisse d’oie / Sauerkraut with goose fat (600g; Lot 21050611; Best before 14/1/2022) due to foreign matter (metal fragments) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Luxembourg): Delhaize recalls Delhaize brand Chipolata de poulet / Chicken sausages (Lot #211130036 & 211130025; Expiry date 10/12/2021) and Delhaize brand Burger de poulet nature / Chicken burgers (Lot 211130036; Expiry 10/12/2021) due to foreign matter (metal fragments) contamination.

Food Safety Recall (Luxembourg): Industry recalls Les Fromageries occitanes brand Fromage Saint-Nectaire AOP Laitier cheese (220g; Lots GD013GDA, GD013GDY, GD013GF4, GF017GFA, H0027H0A; Use by dates from 24/12/2021 to 31/12/2021, inclusive) due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

Pet Food Safety Recall (UK): Monkfield Nutrition recalls all batches of frozen feeder mice products for feeding reptiles due to Salmonella contamination. Please refer to the recall notice for a complete list of affected products.

Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands

OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION (South Africa): The Department of Health is investigating possible food poisoning in Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Gauteng Provinces, following the deaths of an unspecified number of children who allegedly consumed noodles.

Food Safety Recall (Singapore): Cold Storage Singapore (1983) Pte Ltd recalls Cantorel brand ‘Plateau 5 Fromages cheese product (300g; Best before 3 Jan 2022; Product of France) due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

In case you missed it…

TAINTED is now available at all major on-line book sellers, and reached #1 New Release status in its Amazon category on Launch Day, December 2nd.

A Short Excerpt

Something Rotten in the State of Iowa

The CDC first became aware of an unusual rise in Salmonella Enteritidis infections in July 2010. Epidemiological and traceback investigations pointed the finger of suspicion at two Iowa-based suppliers of shell eggs: Quality Egg, LLC (also known as Wright County Egg) and Hillandale Farms of Iowa, Inc.

Alerted by the CDC, the FDA began a detailed inspection of Quality Egg on August 12th. They encountered an egg-laying farm overrun with rodents and birds. Henhouses and buildings used to store feed grain were in a state of disrepair, with manure seeping through the concrete foundation of one of the laying houses. Uncaged chickens ambled across an eight-foot high pile of manure to access the egg-laying area.

The situation confronting inspectors when they began their inspection of Hillandale Farms on August 19th was just as bad. Uncaged hens tracked manure into the henhouses, some of which had structural damage. There was standing water adjacent to the manure pit, and liquid manure was leaking into one of the henhouses.

It surprised no one when environmental samples collected at both Quality Egg and Hillandale Farms tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis.

Quality Egg announced a recall on August 13th, and expanded the scope of the recall on August 18th. Hillandale followed suit with its own recall notice on August 20th.

TAINTED

From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures

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Official Launch Day for TAINTED

TAINTED

From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures

Salmonella in eggs. Listeria in deli meats. Melamine in milk. Cyclospora in lettuce.

In a world where irrigation water is contaminated by run-off from cattle feedlots and where food processors cut corners, the food preparation skills we learned from our parents and grandparents are no longer good enough to keep us safe.

Using a variety of foodborne disease outbreaks, often illustrated with the stories of individual victims, TAINTED explores the ways in which food becomes contaminated. Some of the stories – such as the deadly 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak – will be very familiar. Others will not.

In this update to her 2007 book, Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives, Phyllis Entis draws on nearly five decades of experience to explain how our regulatory systems have failed us, and to talk about what can be done to protect consumers from unsafe food.

About the Author

A graduate of McGill University and the University of Toronto, Phyllis Entis received her introduction to the field of food safety at the hands of Canada’s Health Protection Branch, where she spent the first seven years of her professional life immersed in Salmonella, Staphylococcus, E. coli and other bad actors from the microbial world.

Entis left government work to co-found (with her husband) QA Life Sciences, a company specializing in rapid testing methods for foodborne bacteria. For the next twenty-two years, she worked closely with representatives of Health Protection Branch, the US Food and Drug Administration and various state agencies to gain official sanction for the use of rapid testing methods in government and industry settings.

In 2001, Entis turned to writing. Her first book, Food Microbiology—The Laboratory, was published in 2002 by the Food Processors Institute. It was followed five years later by Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives, which was released by the American Society for Microbiology Press in January 2007.

Since 2007, Entis has written about food safety issues for several publications, including Food Safety News, The Bark, and eFoodAlert. She has also found the time to write and release a 5-book mystery series, The Damien Dickens Mysteries.

In TAINTED, Entis has combined her decades of experience in food safety with the story-telling skills honed during her career as a mystery writer to revamp and update the wealth of information contained in Old Habits, and to produce a food safety narrative that is both educational and accessible.

A Short Excerpt

Chapter 3 – Betrayal

Sarah Lewis and her entire family attended a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant on May 29, 2010 to mark her sister Stacey’s college graduation. The next night, Sarah’s world turned upside down.

Already feeling unwell on the evening of May 30th, Sarah went to bed early. She awakened during the night, suffering from vomiting and severe diarrhea. The next day, Sarah’s mother, who lived nearby, took her to an urgent care facility. Twenty minutes later, she was admitted to hospital and was later diagnosed with salmonellosis.

Badly dehydrated and in enormous pain from her inflamed bowels, Sarah was moved to the hospital’s ICU. While there, she developed severe tachycardia (abnormally rapid heartbeat), and was moved to the critical care heart unit, where she spent three days.

When Sarah was finally discharged in time to attend her daughter’s preschool graduation, she thought the worst was behind her.

About 2½ weeks later, she was back in the hospital, still suffering from severe dehydration. She was released after five days.

The antibiotics Sarah took to combat her Salmonella infection stripped her digestive system of its normal population of protective bacteria, resulting in her becoming infected with Clostridium difficile (C. diff), a bacterium which causes severe diarrhea and cramping. A fourteen-day antibiotic regimen took care of the C. diff; however, the Salmonella was more resilient. Four months later, Sarah still was on five to ten different medications daily to combat the infection and control her symptoms.

Sarah Lewis was the first recorded California victim of a Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak that sickened more than 1,900 people across the United States.

The restaurant where Stacey’s graduation banquet was held had purchased custard tarts from a local bakery. Ordinarily, the bakery used a pasteurized liquid egg mixture to make the tarts. However, on the day they prepared the dessert items for the graduation dinner, the bakery ran out of pasteurized egg mix and used fresh, raw shell eggs instead. Eggs that most likely had come from Iowa.