New Jersey-based Lakeside Refrigerated Services is recalling about 120,872 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O103. The issue was uncovered during routine FSIS testing of imported products.
The recall affects ground beef products that were produced between February 1, 2022 and April 8, 2022, and have the establishment number EST. 46841” inside the USDA mark of inspection (FSIS has provided a full list of products and product codes as well as product labels). The products were distributed to retail locations nationwide.
Thus far there are no confirmed reports of illness or adverse reactions related to products affected by this recall. “Many clinical laboratories do not test for non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) such as O103 because it is harder to identify than STEC O157:H7. People can become ill from STECs 2–8 days (average of 3–4 days) after consuming the organism,” FSIS stated in an announcement. The agency has advised that consumers throw out or return the recalled products to the place of purchase.
The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) has published its 2019 Integrated Report Summary, which reviews antimicrobial resistance trends in Salmonella, Campylobacter, generic E. coli, and Enterococcus. The report also discusses genomic information for Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli in retail meat and food producing animals.
NARMS is a partnership between FDA, CDC, USDA’s FSIS, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Agricultural Research Service, and other state and local public health departments and federal agencies. The national surveillance in the report helps all public health partners identify new types and patterns of resistance and changes over time.
“FSIS and the CDC use NARMS information on a case-by-case basis to investigate foodborne illnesses and outbreaks. FDA routinely uses NARMS data in its regulatory review and approval of new animal antimicrobial drugs, and to develop and update policies on the judicious use of antimicrobial in animals. NARMS findings help public health partners continually assess the nature and magnitude of bacterial antibiotic resistance at different points along the farm-to-fork continuum.” – USDA
The report includes a new way to calculate multidrug resistance (MDR), which means a resistance to three or more antimicrobial drug classes. The method is supposed to provide more consistency to the NARMS year-to-year MDR trend analysis and comparisons.
Florida-based Alpine Fresh, Inc. has issued a voluntary recall of its “Hippie Organics” French Beans due to potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. The recall affects 1-pound packages from lot# 313-626, and the products were sold across 12 states in Whole Foods, Aldi and LIDL retail stores.
The issue was uncovered during routing company testing and is isolated to the specific recalled lot, according to a company announcement on FDA’s website. Alpine Fresh states that corrective actions have been taken to prevent recurrence.
Thus far no illnesses related to the recall have been reported.
This year’s annual GFSI conference took place in person (in Barcelona), for the first time in two years. The event, which focused on the theme of sustainability, welcomed more than 600 food safety professionals and stakeholders.
“I still can’t quite get my head around the fact that after a life-changing pandemic, GFSI has managed to bring us together for a face-to-face, handshake-to-handshake, smile-behind-the-mask, non-Zoom event,” said The Consumer Goods Forum’s GFSI Director Erica Sheward during her opening speech.
During day one of the event, stakeholders discussed the responsibility of the food industry to help people who are affected by humanitarian crises, more effective food safety capability building to address supply chain challenges, and GFSI’s commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (no poverty, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, and responsible consumption and production). The conversation around food safety capability building also delved into challenges for emerging markets as well as small-to-medium sized organizations in developing economies that want to join the global market.
Day two addressed GFSI’s strategic priorities, including the organization’s Benchmarking Requirements for Professional Recognition Bodies. Experts also talked about data sharing between public and private sectors, and the importance of technology to enhance company operations—not replace humans and their expertise.
The final day of the GFSI conference featured discussions around how to reach sustainability goals and the involvement of food safety regulations and other legislative components, as well as the need for sustainability initiatives to be accessible and affordable in order to have a global impact.
GFSI compiled a full review of the event in its Executive Summary, which is available on the organization’s website.
Today the FDA issued a draft guidance that shines a spotlight on the importance of assessing food allergens that are not one of the nine major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, sesame and soybeans). “The nine major food allergens don’t currently represent all foods nationwide that people are allergic to or that cause food hypersensitivities,” said CFSAN Director Susan Mayne, Ph.D., in an agency release. “This draft guidance is part of the FDA’s efforts to evaluate emerging evidence about other non-listed food allergens that can cause serious reactions in a consistent and transparent manner, which can inform potential future actions to better help protect the health of consumers.”
The draft, “Evaluating the Public Health Importance of Food Allergens Other Than the Major Food Allergens Listed in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act”, targets immunoglobulin E antibody (IgE)-mediated food allergies, which can cause severe and life-threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis. The document reviews the evidence that establishes a food as a cause of IgE-mediated food allergy and scientific factors, such as prevalence, severity and allergenic potency, that the FDA would consider in evaluations. It also reviews the agency’s recommendations for identifying and evidence to determine the public health importance of a non-listed food allergen.
Comments on the draft guidance can be submitted by August 17, 2022.
CFSAN and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are conducting research to better understand the factors, including seasonal effects, that could be contributing to E. Coli O157:H7 outbreaks linked to bagged romaine lettuce. FDA and USDA scientists presented findings in the BMC Environmental Microbiome, which revealed that E. Coli O157:H7 survived “significantly better in cold-stored packaged romaine harvested in the fall than on the same varieties harvested in late spring.” In addition, the researchers showed that the microbiome present on bagged lettuce changes based on the season, level of deterioration of the lettuce and whether survival of the pathogen on the lettuce was high or low. They also found that the pathogen survived better in lettuce that was harvested in the fall versus lettuce harvested in the spring during cold storage. “This is a significant step toward closing the knowledge gaps identified in the FDA’s Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan and helping the agency and its partners to reduce foodborne illness linked to the consumption of leafy greens,” CFSAN stated in an agency update.
The study, “Seasonality, shelf life and storage atmosphere are main drivers of the microbiome and E. coli O157:H7 colonization of post-harvest lettuce cultivated in a major production area in California”, has been published on the Environmental Microbiome’s website.
The global supply chain is only getting more interconnected and complex, and with that, the need to improve food logistics strategies has never been greater. The role of technology in providing greater accuracy, traceability and transparency continues to be a critical component in food logistics management—and the matter becomes more urgent when dealing with perishable food products. Shipping these products requires stringent cold chain controls to prevent spoilage. In a Q&A with Food Safety Tech, Oren Zaslansky, CEO of Flock Freight, discusses how more thoughtful food logistics strategies can ultimately save companies time and money, as well as get products on store shelves faster.
Learn about how to manage supply chain challenges during Food Safety Tech’s upcoming virtual event on Supply Chain Hazards | May 18, 2021 @ 12 pm ET | Register nowFood Safety Tech: How is technology helping food companies solve the logistical challenges triggered by the pandemic?
Oren Zaslansky: Shipping perishable or fragile goods is no easy task. Shippers must maintain tight controls over every aspect of the shipping process—from timing to handling—to avoid damage or compromised product integrity. When things go wrong, rejected shipments can cost money, and food safety concerns can cost business. A recent survey of shippers across the United States found that 100% of respondents reported that their LTL freight arrived late in 2021, and 100% had to remanufacture and reship goods due to damage.
Luckily, there are food transportation methods that lower the risk of product damage and spoilage due to delays. Right now, food manufacturers typically choose between truckload (TL) and less than truckload (LTL) shipping, but they should instead consider shared truckload (STL) for freight that can’t fill an entire trailer to capacity. Speed to shelves is key for food shippers and traditional LTL has as low as 40–70% on-time service. Meanwhile, STL has a 94% average on-time performance.
STL places shipments (from multiple shippers that are traveling on a similar route) onto the same truck, optimizing the best possible routes so freight never loads or unloads between pickup and delivery. To achieve this, an STL solution can use advanced algorithms to analyze hundreds of thousands of shipments, with the goal of combining freight into terminal-free loads that fill trucks to capacity. This minimizes potential delays and reduces damage to 0.1%. Trucks are filled to capacity, reducing the cost of shipping midsized freight, while maximizing carriers’ earnings, eliminating unnecessary mileage, and contributing to a more sustainable supply chain.
Oren Zaslansky, CEO of Flock Freight, a logistics provider that guarantees shared truckload service.
FST: Are there particular sectors of the food industry that can benefit more from these technologies?
Zaslansky: Any perishable and fragile foods are an obvious answer, but this technology can be deployed for any type of food or beverage, and even for companies that create packaging for foods and beverages. Any sector that has difficulty filling its trucks to capacity, yet has strict product integrity and delivery timeframes, is the right fit for technology that enables shared truckloads at scale.
FST: How can logistics companies work with food manufacturers to ensure the most effective method/solution is implemented when shipping products?
Zaslansky: As COVID cases start to fall, people will start eating out again, putting pressure on restaurants, which will ultimately lead to truck shortages because everyone will need them. The number one way to combat this will be to make sure each truck is filled to capacity and rely on technologies that optimize routes that will get them where they need to go in a timely manner.
For shippers, shared truckload service enables them to only pay for the space they need (versus paying for space they can’t fill), and for carriers, optimizing their truck and driver schedules to make the best use of their fleet will help them stay ahead.
The above technology that enables shared truckloads at scale will help food shippers track perishable shipments and spot inefficiency in their food and beverage supply chains. By working with the right partners and implementing sound food logistics strategies, shippers can better understand weak spots in their supply chains, more quickly implement solutions, and more effectively protect the freshness or integrity of perishable and fragile goods.
Following a surge in consumers reporting illnesses that range from nausea to vomiting to diarrhea after eating Lucky Charms, FDA has initiated an investigation into the product and the claims. Iwaspoisoned.com is a nationwide consumer food safety platform that allows people to report their illnesses immediately. The complaints of food poisoning connected to consuming the popular cereal began trending late last year, with more than 1300 reports of illnesses to date, according to the website.
Patrick Quade, founder of iwaspoisoned.com, called the volume of consumer complaints related to this single product “unprecedented”.
FDA has not released an official statement on the matter.
General Mills spokesperson Andrea Williamson told Consumer Reports the following: “After a thorough internal investigation, we have not found any evidence that these complaints are attributed to our products. We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills to ensure they can be appropriately addressed.”
In an Op-Ed published by Politico today, former FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Michael Taylor is calling on FDA’s Food Program to be separated from the current hierarchy—with the establishment of a new agency that has its own head and reports directly to the HHS secretary.
“Under FDA’s current structure, no one is really in charge and realistically accountable for the food program’s strategic direction, sound resource management and overall success; and this state of play has real consequences for consumers. It puts at risk the public’s health and consumer confidence in the nation’s food supply,” Taylor wrote in “It’s Time to Fix FDA by Breaking It Up”. He emphasizes that food has not been given a high enough priority at the agency, despite the passage and implementation of FSMA, and the past two administrations did not help either. “Neither the Obama nor Trump administration empowered the deputy commissioner for food to oversee the program’s largest organizational unit, which is responsible for food inspection and import activities and manages nearly 70% of all the dollars Congress gives the food program,” he stated. “The success of food safety modernization won’t succeed without the policymaking and inspection units working as an integrated whole. Because they are all managed separately and report directly to commissioners whose attention is elsewhere, this is virtually impossible in today’s FDA.”
Allowing the Food Program to stand on its own, reporting directly to HHS, would create an agency that is empowered not only with more resources but also with having more accountability.
Parsippany, NJ-based Ferrero U.S.A., Inc. has issued a voluntary recall of its Kinder Happy Moments Chocolate Assortment and Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats basket over concerns that the products may be contaminated with Salmonella Typhimurium.
“Ferrero deeply regrets this situation. We take food safety extremely seriously and every step we have taken has been guided by our commitment to consumer care. We will continue to work cooperatively with the Food and Drug Administration to address this matter.” – Ferrero, U.S.A.
Several Kinder products have been recalled outside the United States, including in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France and Luxembourg, as a result of Salmonella contamination. Thus far there have been reportedly 105 confirmed cases of illnesses and 29 suspected cases—mainly in children under 10 years old.
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