Tag Archives: almonds

Recall

Undeclared Allergens Drive Recent Recalls

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Recall

Leading up to Halloween, sweets, including cookies, gelato and dipping caramel, were among the foods recalled due to undeclared allergens.

On October 27, Daiso California issued an allergy alert for its Tiramisu Twist Cookies due to undeclared almonds and hazelnuts, and Whole Foods Market recalled Dipping Caramel from five stores in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska because the product may contain wheat, which is not declared on the product label.

Daiso’s Tiramisu Twist Cookies were sold in Daiso stores in California, Washington, Nevada, Texas, New York and New Jersey. The cookies are packaged in a gold bag with a large image of two cookies on the package and are sold in 3.4oz (96g) packages. According to the FDA alert, there has been one reported case of allergic reaction to this product.

The affected products in the Whole Foods recall was sold at the following Whole Foods Market stores:

  • 10020 Regency Circle, Regency-Omaha, NE
  • 340 Reed Street, Basalt, CO
  • 1250 South Hover Road, Suite 300, Longmont, CO
  • 14615 W. 119th Street, Olathe, KS
  • 9366 S. Colorado Blvd Ste B, Highlands Ranch, CO

The products, “Dipping Caramel by the Pound,” were available in the bakery department with a product code of 34888, sell by dates of October 25 – November 15, 2022, and were available for purchase from October 4 – October 25, 2022. The mislabeling issue was discovered by a store employee.

One day prior, on October 26, Zingerman’s Creamery of Ann Arbor, Michigan, recalled 173 pints of Paw Paw Gelato, 50 quarts of Paw Paw Gelato, 58 pints of Harvest Pumpkin Gelato and 10 quarts of its Harvest Pumpkin Gelato because they may contain undeclared egg allergen.

Per the recall notice, Paw Paw and Harvest Pumpkin Gelato was distributed in Ann Arbor and Chelsea, Michigan through Zingerman’s Creamery, Zingerman’s Deli, zingermans.com, Argus Farm Stop (Packard) and Agricole Farm Stop.

The lots that are recalled are: Paw Paw (220916, 220928, 221005, 221012, 221018) Harvest Pumpkin (220909, 220919, 220928). No illnesses have been reported to date.

Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Marzipan Or Persipan, That’s the Question

By Susanne Kuehne
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Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food fraud, almond tree
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

Both Prunus species produce similar flavor and sensory profiles, but have significantly different costs—the 50% cheaper apricot kernels are sometimes used as an adulterant, replacing almonds in products such as marzipan, almond oil or almond powder. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method shows that the DNA barcode of almond shows significant differences from other Prunus species and can therefore be used to detect adulteration of almond products.

Resource

  1. Uncu, A.O. (March 2, 2020). “A trnH-psbA barcode genotyping assay for the detection of common apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) adulteration in almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.)” Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online.
Nuts, tree nuts

Q3 Hazard Beat: Nuts, Nut Products and Seeds

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Nuts, tree nuts

The following infographic is a snapshot of the hazard trends in nuts, nut products and seeds from Q3 2019. The information has been pulled from the HorizonScan quarterly report, which summarizes recent global adulteration trends using data gathered from more than 120 reliable sources worldwide. For the past several weeks, Food Safety Tech has provided readers with hazard trends from various food categories included in this report. This week’s hazard snapshot concludes the series.

Nut hazards, HorizonScan
2019 Data from HorizonScan by FeraScience, Ltd.

View last week’s hazards in Milk & Dairy Products.

FDA

FDA Announces Enforcement Discretion Related to Produce Safety Rule

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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FDA

FDA has announced it will exercise enforcement discretion for Produce Safety Rule requirements that apply to entities that grow, harvest, pack and hold wine grapes, hops, pulse crops and almonds. The agency added that it will “consider pursuing rulemaking to address the unique circumstances” that the above-mentioned products present. It also issued the guidance document, “Enforcement Policy for Entities Growing, Harvesting, Packing, or Holding Hops, Wine Grapes, Pulse Crops, and Almonds”.