Recall Roundup: August 18, 2010

Here is today's list of food safety recalls, product withdrawals, allergy alerts and miscellaneous compliance issues. The live links will take you directly to the official recall notices and company news releases that contain detailed information for each recall and alert.

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United States

• Allergy Alert: NBTY Acquisition LLC, dba Leiner Health Products (Ronkonkoma, NY) recalls Air Shield, Air Protector, Immune System Support, and AirHealth Effervescent 10 Tablet containers and Stick Packs, 8 stick containers, because they may contain undeclared soy. The recalled products were distributed nationally under Equate (Walmart), Equaline (Supervalue and Albertson's), Top Care, Your Life, CVS, Longs Wellness, Trader Darwin's (Trader Joe's), Target, Safeway, Safeway Select, Premier Value, Sunmark, Target Up & Up, and Walborn (Walgreen's) brands.
• FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Juice Pac, Inc. (Bowling Green, KY) that a May 2010 inspection of the company's juice processing facility revealed serious deviations from the juice HACCP regulations.
• FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Factoria del Lago (Maracaibo, Venezuela) that an April 2010 inspection of Kingmar Seafood Corporation (Miami, FL), an importer of seafood products, revealed that Factoria del Lago's HACCP plan contained serious deviations from the requirements of the US seafood HACCP program.
• FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Corporacion Del Mar (Maracaibo, Venezuela) that an April 2010 inspection of Kingmar Seafood Corporation (Miami, FL), an importer of seafood products, revealed that Corporacion Del Mar's HACCP plan contained serious deviations from the requirements of the US seafood HACCP program.
• FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns Pescamara (La Canada De Urdanota, Venezuela) that an April 2010 inspection of Kingmar Seafood Corporation (Miami, FL), an importer of seafood products, revealed that Pescamara's HACCP plan contained serious deviations from the requirements of the US seafood HACCP program.
• FDA Warning Letter: FDA warns GroPoint Fisheries SDN BHD (Labuan, Malaysia) that a review of the company's HACCP plan and supporting documents revealed serious deviations from the requirements of the USA seafood HACCP regulation.
• Food Safety Recall: NuCal Foods (Ripon, CA) recalls specific Julian dates of shell eggs produced by Wright County Egg and packaged by NuCal Foods because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis. The recalled eggs were distributed to food wholesalers and retailers in California and Nevada under the Bayview, Mountain Dairy, Nulaid, and Sun Valley brand names.
• Food Safety Recall: Monarch Food Group (a division of U.S. Foodservice) alerts its customers to the recall of shell eggs by Wright County Egg (Galt, IA) and Lund Egg Co. (Woodville, WI). Some of the Lund Egg Co. eggs were sold under the Glenview Farms brand name.

Canada

• Food Safety Recall: Loblaw Companies Limited recalls in-store baked President's Choice® Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies, because the product may contain small, round, 1 mm. diameter pieces of metal. The recalled product is sold nationally at Loblaw corporate, franchise and affiliated independent stores, in the bakery department, in packages of eight cookies weighing 352g with UPC number 0 6038383903 8.
• Food Safety Recall: Les bergeries du Fjord (Saguenay, QC) recalls Le Belle de Jersey cheese, sold in variable weights at various retail locations in Québec from July 16 to August 13, and in Ontario from July 27 to August 17, 2010. The recalled cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
• Personal Care Product Safety Alert/Recall: Health Canada is warning Canadians that several hair care and skin care products manufactured by Hesh Pharma of India have been found to be contaminated with bacteria. These products pose a risk to people with weakened immune systems and can cause an infection if they are inhaled or introduced into the body through the eyes, nose, or mouth, or via open wounds on the skin. Hesh Pharma products are known to have been distributed to various ethnic stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, and Ontario, but may be sold throughout Canada. Health Canada is working with Canada Border Services Agency to stop future shipments of the product from entering Canada.
• Herbal Product Safety Advisory: Health Canada warns Canadian consumers that Fulda Unitang Herbs Sleep Plus, an unauthorized product promoted as an herbal sleep aid, has been found to contain high levels of the undeclared drug estazolam and may pose serious health risks to consumers. Estazolam is a prescription sedative that can impair mental alertness; it can also be habit-forming and should only be used under the supervision of a healthcare practitioner.

Europe

• Food Safety Product Withdrawal (UK, Ireland and Malta): The Vending Revolution, U.K. has instigated a withdrawal of certain batches of Snack-a-Can Fizzy Jelly Mix and Fizzy Cola Bottles, because the metal base of the can that contains the sweets has been inserted upside-down. This means that the sweets might react with the metal base, thus causing the metal to corrode and the sweets to change colour. Snack-a-Can brand products are sold through vending machines. Irish distributors have been asked to remove affected stock from vending machines.
• Food Safety Recall (Ireland): Burren Springs Ltd. recalls Coolwater Irish Still Spring Water, 500 mL and Burren Springs Irish Natural Spring Water, 500 mL (Batch code 0196; best before 31/07/2011 for both products) due to the presence of bacteria which are not permitted under EU legislation for spring waters.
• Food Safety Recall (Denmark): NatureSource recalls Hijiki seaweed, dried (50-gram plastic bags; Best before 22:07:12), because the product contains high levels of arsenic. The recalled seaweed was sold to retail outlets across Denmark and over the Internet.
• Food Safety Recall (Denmark): Harboefarm A/S recalls minced beef 3-7%, 475 gr (Best before 19-8-2010) due to contamination with little green pieces of plastic. The recalled minced beef was sold at Net shops across Denmark.
• Food Safety Recall (Denmark): Harboes Bryggeri A/S recalls X-Ray Juicy cranberry / pomegranate, 500 ml (Best before 12-01-2011) and X-Ray Juicy Orange / mango / passion, 500 ml (Best before 13-01-2011), because the products contain high levels of undeclared caffeine and vitamin B6. The recalled products were sold at Fakta stores.
• Food Safety Recall (Denmark): BC Catering Grossisten A/S recalls smoked tenderloin, produced August 4, 2010, after Listeria monocytogenes is detected in the product. The recalled meat was sold mainly to catering kitchens on Funen.
• Food Safety Recall (Belgium and France): Carrefour recalls one lot of Carrefour Discount brand frozen ground steak (Best before 18/06/2011) after routine testing detected Escherichia coli O26:H11 in a sample of the meat. The recalled product was sold in Carrefour Hyper, Carrefour GB/Market and Carrefour Express stores in Belgium.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1120): Parasitic infestation with Anisakis of fresh anchovy from Slovenia; distributed to Italy.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1123): Bone fragments in frozen cut beef from the Netherlands, via Italy dispatched from Belgium; distributed to Finland.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1127): Salmonella in turkey meat from Poland used in turkey pitta from Belgium; distributed to Belgium and France.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1128): Ochratoxin A in sun dried sultanas from Turkey, via Greece; distributed to Cyprus.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1122): Salmonella enteritidis in marinated chicken breast filets from Germany; distributed to Denmark.
• Food Safety Notification (EU #2010.1121): Salmonella Minnesota in marinated chicken filet from Germany; distributed to Denmark.

Some supermarket chains post recall notices on their web sites for the convenience of customers. To see whether a recalled food was carried by your favorite supermarket, follow the live link to the supermarket's recall web site.

• A&P
• Big Y® World Class Market®
  
• BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.
  
• Bloom
  
• Brookshire's
  
• Costco Wholesale Corporation (US stores)
  
• Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd.
  
• EDEKA (Germany)
• Food City
  
• Food Lion
  
• Giant Food LLC
• Gros Cidac (Italy)
• Hannaford Brothers Co.
  
• Harris Teeter
  
• Harvey's Supermarket
  
• H-E-B
• The Kroger Company*
  
• Price Chopper
  
• Raley's
• Roundy's Supermarkets, Inc.
  
• Sainsbury's
  
• ShopRite
  
• Stop & Shop
• Sweetbay Supermarkets
• Target
  
• Top Food & Drug
• Tops Friendly Markets
  
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
  
• Wegmans
  
• Whole Foods Market
  
• WinCo Foods
• Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc.
  

*The Kroger umbrella encompasses numerous supermarket, marketplace and convenience store chains, listed on the Kroger corporate home page.