Dive Brief:
- FDA officials are working with the sugar company that initiated a recall earlier this month due to certain lots of its sugar potentially containing bits of metal.
- However, the FDA has not disclosed the supplier's name, the manufacturers that received the sugar or even how much sugar is being recalled, citing federal law on corporate confidentiality.
- That sugar recall has already led to at least two secondary product recalls, including certain P.F. Chang's frozen entrees ConAgra recalled last week.
Dive Insight:
Manufacturers may be able to find relief knowing that the FDA abides by corporate confidentiality laws. However, the main problem here is not facing regulators — it's facing consumers.
Transparency, especially in cases involving food safety and product recalls, is of utmost importance to consumers today. If a company was recalling a product or ingredient and no one came forward to identify which company it is, how extensive the problem is or how the company is working to fix the problem, the reputations of any companies and regulating bodies involved could be tarnished.
In a statement to Food Safety News, the FDA said, "We are still gathering information and working to identify other parts of the relevant supply chain and facilitate recalls where necessary. However, FDA is prohibited by law from releasing publicly certain information about supply chains, which may constitute confidential commercial information."
The questions in this recall are often answered upfront by the company and FDA in news releases made available to the public. That nobody—not the sugar supplier itself, the FDA nor the companies that purchase the sugar—has come forward to identify the supplier could suggest a larger recall is looming in the near future.