Ella's Kitchen, a UK-based organic baby food company, initiated a product withdrawal on September 3rd, after learning about a microbial spoilage problem. The drinking straws included with the packaging of certain batches of their stage 1 baby foods were contaminated with a non-pathogenic fungus by the name of Aureobasidium.
Ella's notified its customers of the problem via Twitter on September 3rd – the same day it notified retailers. The official product withdrawal notice, dated September 9th and published on the Food Standards Agency web site, provided details of product varieties, batch codes, and expiration dates that one expects to see in this type of communication.
What else did the company do that others can learn from?
1. Ella's Kitchen posted on its web site a lucid explanation for its product withdrawal, clear instructions for contacting the company, and an apology for the problem – reproduced below:
A small number of people have contacted us and let us know about an issue with some of our Carrots, Apples + Parsnips stage one baby food pouches.
We’ve looked into this and found that 3 of our products produced at one isolated factory have been subject to natural product spoilage, occurring inside the straw of the pouches. Ella’s products that are sold in the USA are not made in this factory and are not affected by this issue.
This has affected our Carrots, Apples + Parsnips; Strawberries + Apples; and Apples + Bananas stage 1 baby food.
Whilst we believe that this spoilage is completely harmless, we are currently investigating thoroughly, and this process will take some time to analyse fully. In the meantime, while we carry out our investigations into the exact cause, and because we believe that mums, dads and hungry little ones should be enjoying all of our products in tip top condition, we have decided to withdraw all products produced at this one factory, until we know what’s gone wrong. This includes the above affected products, plus our ‘Yellow One’ smoothie fruit snack as a precautionary measure.
The batches we are withdrawing are limited to products with the letters ‘CAP’, ‘SA’, ‘YO’ and ‘AB’ in the batch code and with the best before dates of April 11, May 11, June 11 and July 11 (both found on the back of pack).
If you have one of these pouches and you'd like to get in touch, then we'd love to hear from you by:
- Contacting us by email on this address: customercare@ellaskitchen.co.uk
- Ringing our customer care line on this number: 0845 26 25 221. We’ll be here to answer calls Mon – Fri 9 –5pm. If you leave a message we’ll get back to you on the next working day.
- Or, you can pop the pouch in an envelope. All you need to write on the envelope is “Freepost Ella’s Kitchen”. Just make sure you include your name, address and telephone number so that we can get in-touch with you and refund your money.
We can assure you that no other Ella’s pouches are affected, having all been made in another factory to Ella’s high standards.
We’d like to say a big thank you to those mums and dads who have taken the time to get in touch and let us know about this. We’re really sorry to have let you down on this occasion. It’s really important to us that we make sure you always enjoy our products in tip top condition.
If you would like to chat to us about this or any of our products please do give us a ring on 0845 26 25 221 or email: customercare@ellaskitchen.co.uk
2. The company kept its customers informed of the outcome of its investigation into the problem with this follow-up, posted on its web site one week later:
It’s been a week since we withdrew some batches of our products from the supermarkets. We wanted to apologise for the inconvenience and worry this may have caused, and also to let you know what we have been doing.
We informed all of the supermarkets on 3rd September to withdraw all affected batches from sale. We had confirmation that this has been actioned and communicated to all stores. From the 4th September, we have been delivering to stores Ella’s pouches that are made in another factory and therefore are not affected by this issue and can be enjoyed as Ella’s foods should be.
We also wanted to share with you that in line with our ethical approach to food production, we have been really busy investigating further. Our own technical team have been at the one factory where these batches were made, along with an independent external expert. Detailed analysis has also been completed by 3 independent experts, all returning the same conclusion that the spoilage is a naturally occurring yeast which is completely harmless. This yeast is present in the environment around us and is for example on all fresh fruit and vegetables.
We have also been working very closely with our local Environmental Health Department and the Food Standards agency (FSA); who are both fully satisfied with both our investigations and conclusions.
If you have one of these pouches, please email us the full batch code and best before date along with your name and address to: customercare@ellaskitchen.co.uk for an Ella’s Kitchen product refund voucher.
We don’t need you to post us back any of the pouches, as we have now completed our investigations on these. We can assure you that no other Ella’s pouches are affected, having all been made in another factory to Ella’s high standards.
We’d like to say a big thank you to those mums and dads who have taken the time to get in touch and let us know about this. We’re really sorry to have let you down on this occasion. It’s really important to us that we make sure you always enjoy our products in tip top condition.
If you would like to chat to us about this or any of our products please do get in touch on 0845 26 25 211 or email customercare@ellaskitchen.co.uk.
We wanted to apologise for the inconvenience and worry this may have caused you. We take any concerns that mums and dads have very seriously. We have popped some useful information on our website today that we’d love you to read and hope you find it reassuring: www.ellaskitchen.co.uk.
Contrast this with the brush-off that some consumers have received from certain egg producers during the nationwide Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak and egg recalls that have roiled the US egg industry in recent weeks.
Ella's Kitchen has produced a public relations primer that truly is out of the mouths of babes.
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Thank you for highlighting the action we took following our recent product withdrawal. We take both our product quality and the concerns of mums and dads very seriously and we were keen to ensure we were keeping parents informed. It’s really important to us that we make sure our products are always enjoyed in tip top condition.
ReplyDeleteI do think that this was handled well in terms of PR . but surely normal thermal processing regimes would eliminate the presence of yeast present on the inner packaging,
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