Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert because Nutriom LLC refused to expand its Feb. 15, 2014 recall of 227,000 pounds of egg products to an additional 118,541 pounds of products that may be unfit for human consumption.
- FSIS issued the original recall because Nutriom allegedly recorded false negative laboratory results for Salmonella, or reported that sampling had occurred when no microbial testing was performed.
- FSIS reports that because Nutriom refused to recall the additional processed egg products, it intends to take appropriate action to remove the products from commerce.
Dive Insight:
Nutriom issued a press release on March 29, in which the company conceded that "a technical, non-food safety related error, occurred" in six lots. However, it maintains "that there is no scientific or legal basis for us to further expand the recall beyond these six lots." The FSIS appears to disagree, despite Nutriom claiming that there is "substantial supporting information" that confirms the food's safety. The company asserts that it, "would be doing a disservice to its customers to recall and destroy wholesome egg products under these circumstances."
Nutriom is not budging in this issue, and that is likely to look bad for the company, as no one wants to take a risk as far as food safety is concerned. Adopting a stubborn attitude here may backfire, particularly if any illnesses do result from consumption of the products in question.
The original recall was reported here. The expanded recall includes products that were shipped to co-packers for incorporation into consumer-size packages.