Milling & Baking News - June 19, 2018 - 7

Editorial

Food product recall review yields lessons

ighly disruptive food product recalls in 2016
The stakes for the food industry and the public are
tied to flour served as a wake-up call, under- high. Foodborne disease is blamed for 48 million U.S.
cutting the milling industry's perception it illnesses annually, 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000
was largely immune from the pathogen and allergen deaths. Data from the Grocery Manufacturers Associaproblems striking so many corners of the food indus- tion published in 2011 showed nearly a third of all U.S.
try. A recently published study of food recalls span- companies had been subject to a product recall over a
ning an earlier 10-year period may cast the prevalence five-year period with most recalls costing $10 million
and risk of product recalls in grain-based foods in a or more. The calculation excludes costs from associatdifferent light.
ed litigation or the damage to a company's or brand's
The study by Elina T. Page, an agricultural econo- reputation. Also excluded are costs to other manufacmist with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. turers not involved in the recall such as sales losses susDepartment of Agriculture, scrutinizes food product tained by all manufacturers of peanut butter cracker
recalls from 2004-13 from several important vantage sandwiches in 2009, not just those who sourced peanut
points - reasons for the recalls, severity of risks posed butter from Peanut Corporation of America, where a
by the incidents, geographic distribution and types of devastating outbreak that year originated.
foods recalled. To measure how recalls were changing
The 2009 peanut butter recall in which Salmonella
over the 10-year period, the study
was discovered skewed the data
Contamination at a single
compares the first five years (2004but also revealed that grain-based
08) to the second (2009-13).
ingredient facility sometimes
foods has an Achilles' heel not
Food recalls rose to an avercompletely protected by the kill
results in dozens if not
age of 676 per year between
step in baking. The P.C.A. incident
hundreds of recalls.
2009 and 2013 from 304 in the
resulted in 714 illnesses, 9 deaths
previous five years beginning in 2004. The increase and triggered 400 separate recalls.
was attributed to improvements in pathogen and
Breaking down each food category by the kinds of
risk detection technology, stepped-up government recalls involved, Ms. Page demonstrated that pathooversight and enforcement and congressional pas- gens are rare in grain-based foods. For baked foods
sage of two major food policy laws - the Food Al- (mostly sweet goods in the study's categorization), 62
lergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act and per cent of the recalls were attributed to undeclared
the Food Safety Modernization Act.
allergens, and for grains (which includes other grainIncluding recalls associated with both federal agen- based foods, including bread), 49 per cent. Salmonella
cies with food safety oversight (the Food and Drug was the cause of recalls in about 20 per cent of casAdministration and the U.S.D.A.), grain-based prod- es. Excluding the P.C.A. episode, a different picture
ucts accounted for more recalls than any other ma- comes to light. For baked foods, 74 of 80 Salmonella
jor food category. Baked foods and grains and grain recalls in 2004-13 took place in 2009, the year of the
products combined accounted for 17.4 per cent of all P.C.A. incident. For grains, 69 of the recalls occurred
recalls, versus 11.9 per cent for prepared foods and either in 2009 or 2010. In most years, Salmonella recalls
meals; 10.9 for nuts, seeds and nut products; and 7.9 of baked foods were zero.
for candy. By contrast, recalls associated with beef and
Still, as the episodes in 2009 and 2016 showed,
beef products accounted for only 3.5 per cent of re- contamination at a single ingredient facility somecalls, and poultry accounted for 1.6 per cent.
times results in dozens if not hundreds of recalls.
Overall in the study, pathogen contamination The findings in the study should give added en(principally E. coli and Salmonella) accounted for ergy across the industry to the considerable effort
41 per cent of all food/beverage recalls with unde- already underway toward reducing food product
clared allergens triggering 27.4 per cent.
recalls in grain-based foods. MBN
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