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NEWSLETTER SIGN UPMore food recalls hit grocery stores
Following the completion of the "recall" column I wrote, two more potentially serious recall notice reached my e-mail. Here is the information:
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin is alerting consumers to the recall of Nestlé Farinha Lactea Cereal.
Nestlé USA is withdrawing Nestlé Farinha Lactea cereal in the United States because the product may contain residual traces of a pesticide not currently approved for use on wheat in the U.S. While the pesticide is approved for use in Brazil and the noted levels are well below Brazilian standards, it is not used on wheat products in the United States and therefore there is no set standard for its presence in cereal.
The withdrawal applies to all sizes, varieties and production codes of the product. No other Nestlé products are affected. Nestlé Farinha Lactea cereal is manufactured in Brazil by Nestlé Brazil and sold primarily in Portuguese language communities in the United States.
Consumers who have purchased Nestlé Farinha Lactea cereal should not consume the product and should return it to the store where they purchased it for a full refund. Consumers with questions about the withdrawal should contact Nestlé Consumer Services at (800) 628-7679. Media should contact Edie Burge at Nestlé USA Corporate & Brand Affairs at (818) 551-3284.
Amy’s Kitchen recalls Tofu
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin alerts consumers to the recall of a tofu product that contains a milk ingredient not listed on the label.
Amy’s Kitchen, Inc., Santa Rosa, Calif., is recalling Amy’s Tofu Scramble in a Pocket Sandwich Lot 10 H148 because it contains a milk ingredient while at the same time is labeled as a non-dairy product.
The 4.0 ounce net weight frozen product is sold at U.S. grocery stores. The code date printed in white on the easy open zipper end is 10 H148 A, B, C, or D. Consumers who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to dairy products run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the product.
No other products or code dates of Amy’s Kitchen products are affected by this recall. Consumers with questions may call collect: (707) 568-4500 and ask for the consumer services department at ext. 4571.
ajackson@barrowcountynews.com
The rash of food recalls the past week has me wondering, is our food really safe?
There is no denying that thousands upon thousands of folks get sick every year in America with no explanation, could it be that the food we are ingesting is not getting the attention it deserves. Has the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) become lazy?
In the last week, six press releases recalling food in the Southeast have crossed my e-mail list and four of those are from Georgia.
On Nov. 7 the Georgia Department of Agriculture sent an e-mail that General Mills is recalling a single days production of Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup. There was nothing wrong with the soup per se, it just had ingredients such as soy, egg and milk that were not listed in the label.
This can be a hazardous situation for folks who have allergies to these foods and ingest it thinking they are safe because they read the ingredients, but in reality the label is wrong.
I have a gluten intolerance and I know first hand how frustrating it is to read labels cautiously, only to walk away feeling sick following a meal, as if I ate wheat, barley, oats or soy and it just wasn’t listed on the label.
And for people who have extreme allergies such as eggs or peanuts, such sloppy errors can prove fatal.
The recall includes 19 ounce Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup with the code 19May10 NV VN-3 printed on the bottom of the can.
It was an error in production with a limited number of cases of Progresso Light Vegetable Soup and Noodle Soup, being mislabeled as Hearty Tomato Soup.
It is a visible error, but some may choose to eat the product they received in error and not realize what the ingredients are.
I also received a recall notice on the same day about contaminated wieners in Georgia.
Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin announced that Scientist found Listeria
Monocytogenes in a sample of Zeigler Wieners.
The contamination was found in a 12 ounce package of chicken and pork wieners marked Use By Nov. 26 08. The dogs also bear a plant number, P-9156S, inside the USDA mark of inspection.
My question to the FDA is, if they truly inspected the dogs, to the point of marking them with an inspection number, why is it that scientist found a potentially life threatening contamination?
Consumption of food containing Listeria has been known to cause Listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially serious disease.
The most common manifestations of the disease is meningitis, which has symptoms of high fever, neck stiffness, severe headaches and nausea.
Listeriosis can also cause stillbirths and miscarriages, along with sometimes fatal infections in infants, elderly and people with weakened immune systems such as someone on chemotherapy.
"We have notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture of today’s lab findings and we are warning the public about the contamination," said Commissioner Irvin.
"Our inspectors will be checking store shelves to make sure wieners with these code numbers are removed from sale. Our scientists here at the department discovered this contamination as part of our sampling program. Sampling on a regular basis following scientific protocol is a very important part of our food safety program," said Irvin.
Sure, it’s a good thing they caught it, but what about the people it’s too late for. What else can we be doing to make sure the foods we are feeding our children, our families, is safe?
Again on Nov. 7, a recall was announced on a frozen stuffed chicken meal.
Barber Foods Company of Portland, Maine, recalled approximately 41,415 pounds of frozen stuffed chicken Kiev that may contain foreign materials.
The following products are being recalled:
20-ounce, cartons of 584 SCHWAN’S STUFFED CHICKEN KIEV. Ink-jetted on the side of each carton is a product identification code of T282171000, and a code of 21781 on each wrapper.
20-ounce, cartons of 584 SCHWAN’S STUFFED CHICKEN KIEV. Ink-jetted on the side of each carton is a product identification code of T281382000, and a code of 13882 on each wrapper.
20-ounce, cartons of 584 SCHWAN’S STUFFED CHICKEN KIEV. Ink-jetted on the side of each carton is a product identification code of T281541000, and a code of 15481 on each wrapper.
Each carton bears the USDA mark of inspection and each contains four individually wrapped boneless breasts. The products were produced on May 17, June 2 and August 4, and were available for catalog or internet purchase from the Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. by consumers nationwide.
The problem was discovered after the Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. received consumer complaints of finding pieces of rubber in the product. Consumers with questions about the recall should contact Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. at 1-888-724-9267.
What worries me about this product is that Schwan’s is a service that will deliver foods to people at home. Many people who use the service are either elderly or homebound for one reason or another. My previous neighbors who are elderly used Schwan’s to keep from having to go to the store every week.
Does this mean that all Schwans’ food is tainted, certainly not. But it does mean that people who have potentially weak immune systems may ingest something that could cause irreversible damage. There must be a better way to keep this from happening.
On Nov. 10 Alabama made the same recall as Georgia on the Zeigler wieners and on that same date, Nestlé recalled its Nesquick Strawberry Powder because it potentially contained small fragments of aluminum.
The recall involves 21.8-ounce containers of Nestlé Nesquik Strawberry Powder. Printed on the bottom of each plastic container is a production code of 82255880 or 82265880 with a best by date of August 2010.
The Strawberry Powder is sold in Georgia and is a product that some folks add to their child’s milk to encourage consumption.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture also released a notice on frozen shrimp products on Nov. 10.
The problem is with Sea Best 10 Raw Shrimp Skewers.
The product contains sulfites without listing so on the label.
People who have severe sensitivity to sulfites run the risk of serious or life-threatening reactions if they consume this product.
Scientists at the Georgia Department of Agriculture, again discovered the problem as part of the department’s routine sampling program.
The 10 Raw Shrimp Skewers product weighs 1.5 pounds and contains 10 skewers of seven shrimp each.
It is a product of China and is distributed by Beaver Street Fisheries Inc., Jacksonville, Florida. "We have notified the Food and Drug Administration of our laboratory findings, and we are warning the public about the problem," said Commissioner Irvin. "Our sanitarians will be checking grocery stores and food warehouses to make sure this product is removed from sale."
So, my question to the FDA, once again is if the Georgia Department of Agriculture is routinely sampling some of the products that are going on Georgia shelves, what about the products that aren’t being sampled?
Certainly they are not able to routinely check everything we are putting in our pantries, feeding to our elderly parents and adding to our children’s milk to make sure they drink it.
What about those foods?
