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Post by cazyncymru on Jul 3, 2015 4:00:27 GMT -5
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Post by martha on Jul 3, 2015 20:19:39 GMT -5
We see a lot more here, but part of it is the fear of lawsuits. Most of them are sloppy labeling, allergens left off, the wrong item in the box, etc. Few are a contamination issue.
People today don't focus as much on quality as they should.
I am glad that they sorted out the ground cumin issue. Now that the test crossreactivity is known, they will either make some more specific antibodies, or find another way to ID almonds. The fun of immunological testing is that you never know what will cross react until it does.
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Post by cazyncymru on Jul 6, 2015 5:35:05 GMT -5
I did a quick count Martha
In the 6 months to July, there have been 77 Product Recalls in the UK
Of these:
44 were for allergens not declared
6 were for mislabelling
9 Microbial issues
8 foreign bodies
3 illegal additive (dyes etc)
1 unapproved premises
1 counterfeited goods
5 exploding bottles.
Really more that half of them shouldn't have happened!
Makes interesting reading. So question is, has the FIR made a change in the UK? Doesn't look like it!
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Post by Rick Ramsay on Jul 6, 2015 6:11:56 GMT -5
The allergens one is the one that kills me the most. At one of the places I worked at we had packaging inspections where one of the lab techs, for the most part, went straight to the packaging lab and checked a bunch of the packaging specs. I think that is what is missing in a lot of places that have allergen labeling problems (unless it's where they put the wrong product in the wrong packaging and cross allergens). I would put money on a bet that most of it is that somehow the allergen just didn't get on the packaging because of an oversight by the company when they set it up or somehow it didn't get printed and never got caught.
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Post by martha on Jul 6, 2015 16:49:34 GMT -5
The allergens one is the one that kills me the most. At one of the places I worked at we had packaging inspections where one of the lab techs, for the most part, went straight to the packaging lab and checked a bunch of the packaging specs. I think that is what is missing in a lot of places that have allergen labeling problems (unless it's where they put the wrong product in the wrong packaging and cross allergens). I would put money on a bet that most of it is that somehow the allergen just didn't get on the packaging because of an oversight by the company when they set it up or somehow it didn't get printed and never got caught. So..what you're saying is that if all food companies were as OCD as we are, there would be hugely less of these mix ups, right?  And, I insist that it is spelled CDO, in alphabetical order, AS IT SHOULD BE!!! |
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Post by martha on Jul 6, 2015 17:12:29 GMT -5
In the 6 months to July, there have been 77 Product Recalls in the UK 44 were for allergens not declared 9 Microbial issues8 foreign bodies 6 were for mislabelling
5 exploding bottles!
3 illegal additive (dyes etc) 1 unapproved premises 1 counterfeited goods And a Seagull in a Pear Tart!! Sorry, I just had to do that. Christmas in July and all that.  That list is pretty much the same as what we see here in the US. Either they did not check the label before printing, they missed having an ingredient on the list that was in the product, or even putting the product into the wrong packaging. That always cracks me up, because some of them are so obviously not what they are labeled that anyone could see the problem. Well maybe not Charles, he would not be paying attention. (Did I say that? Naughty me!) The most recent interesting foreign body one was the terry cloth glove pieces that probably got into the hamburger and hotdog buns. Nothing that would be harmful, but not fun to bite into. |
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Post by Rick Ramsay on Jul 7, 2015 7:59:44 GMT -5
In 2014 SQF found that:
Out of 2155 recalls in the united states
26.3% were biological hazard recalls
8.2% were physical hazard recalls
19.3% were Other issues (mostly quality issues)
46.2% were Chemical hazards of which 78.6% were allergen related
The numbers were somewhat close to SQF certified companies only (though their data on SQF certified companies is more easily monitored)
35.7% were biological hazard recalls
8.4% were physical hazard recalls
14% were other issues
42% were chemical hazards of which 96.7 were allergen related.
(the above information came from an SQF webinar)
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