Do the FSA’s product alerts on food recalls always work and are food businesses misusing this system
The Food Standard Agency (FSA) use product alerts on where food businesses recall products due to problems found with them.
Whilst the idea of product recalls and these alerts is good they appear to be being misused, as it is the Food Business Operators (FBO’s) responsibility in law to ensure their food is safe.
On the 18th February 2021 the FSA issued a food alert following a product recall on frozen raw breaded chicken products sold in Sainsbury’s. See link below.
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/fsa-alerts-files/production/FSA-PRIN-10-2021/FSA-PRIN-10-2021-SFC-recalls-SFC-Chicken-products-because-of-the-presence-of-Salmonella.pdf
On the 19th February 2021 the FSA issued a news alert reiterating its advice on cooking of such products due to an outbreak since January 2020, as there have been 480 cases of Salmonellosis caused by two strains of Salmonella Enteritidis and linked to consumption of frozen, raw, breaded chicken products. Link below
https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/news/the-fsa-is-reiterating-its-advice-on-cooking-frozen-raw-breaded-chicken-products-following-link-to-rising-cases-of-salmonella
If you were one of the 480 people involved to date in this outbreak and have suffered illness due to this, I don’t think that the thought of a product refund could be seen as a sufficient apology.
Since the 8thst January 2020 until the 18th February this year
there were 158 food and allergen alerts issued by the FSA, which is approximately one alert issued every 3 days.
There were:
81, Allergy alerts. (Peanuts, Hazelnuts, Almonds, Milk. Cheese Wheat (Gluten) Soya etc)
26, food poisoning alerts such as Salmonella, Campylobacter. Listeria or E.coli O157.
21, where small pieces of plastic, metal or rubber could be in the products.
6 alerts, where bottles or packaging was faulty, or baby food was tampered with.
3 alerts relating to mould.
3 alerts, where Hygiene legislation, food safety requirements or supplied meat sold via Facebook by an unapproved vendor.
4 alerts due to contamination by bacterial, microbiological, cleaning solution or apple storks in baby food.
1 alert citing danger to the liver.
1 alert that cited may affect animal or human health.
1 alert where an illegal Dye was used.
1 alert about a thistle (Spikey weed) in a food product.
4 alerts regarding incorrect date on labelling or incorrect label for all the products contents.
3 alerts regarding Aspartame (E951).
2 alerts in relation to Clostridium botulinum.
1 alert about flour from an unknown source.
The alerts, covered all types of food from baby food to vegan products which are sold in the large supermarket chains and other retailers, that were mainly supplied to them from other FBO’s.
This is why I believe we need unannounced truly independent inspections of all food products rather than those carried out by the food industry itself such as The British retail Consortium & Red tractor accreditation, as we have seen previously what happens when they mark their own work, in terms of food safety and animal welfare.
I believe that when a regulator such as the FSA gets too close to those it is meant to regulate, it becomes ineffective.
I believe the FSA’s flag ship policy of Regulating our Future will lead to less hands-on independent inspections by Environmental Health Offices, Port Health Authority officers, Meat Hygiene inspectors etc.
The FSA in December 2020 published a report on “Consumer perception of risk survey”.
The survey was undertaken by Kantar Public in 2017 and the analysis undertaken internally by the FSA’s Analytics Unit.
It states on page 16 in conclusions:
“Generally, consumers tend to be more knowledgeable about food allergens and intolerances. Campylobacter is a notable case where there is relatively low awareness, despite the risk causing approximately 280,000 cases of foodborne illnesses per annum.”
Thank you for your continued help and support.
Stay safe.