Over the past few weeks government agencies in the U.S. and Canada have been investigating possible Salmonella contamination of Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), an ingredient used as a flavour enhancer  used in a wide array of commercially-prepared foods, such as chips, soups, dips, salad dressings, sauces, frozen dinners and snack foods.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are conducting investigations and following the situation closely.  There have been no reports of any confirmed illnesses in Canada or the U.S. linked to the food products containing HVP and the risk is considered to be very low.

The complete list of recalled products is available on the CFIA’s food safety portal at www.foodsafety.gc.ca or the FDA’s website at www.foodsafety.gov. If you have any of the recalled products in your home, you should not eat them.  You should check the sites regularly since it is expected that more products may be recalled as a result of the ongoing investigations.

The products that are being recalled are ready-to-eat products that contain the affected HVP ingredient and have not been subject to a  heat treatment or other process that would effectively eliminate the Salmonella.

No Maple Leaf products have been recalled, however we are closely monitoring the situation.  We are taking all measures necessary to continue to ensure the safety of our products.   

It is important to note that both the CFIA and FDA have advised that certain products  that contain the affected HVP do not represent a food safety risk and are not subject to the recall.  This includes:

• ready-to-eat foods where HVP may be added as an ingredient and which have been made using processes that would effectively eliminate Salmonella, such asnormal cooking practices
• ready-to-cook products that consumers cook or reheat at home after they buy them areunlikely to pose a risk providing the product is prepared at temperatures stated in the validated cooking instructions provided on the packaging. Thesecooking instructions shouldprovideinstructions thatensures the product reaches temperaturesthat effectively eliminate Salmonella.

Following safe food handling practices and maintaining proper refrigeration temperatures are critical to minimizing the risk associated with the presence of Salmonella in raw meats.  Thoroughly cooking product to the recommended internal temperature, for example 165ºF/74ºC in poultry products, effectively eliminates Salmonella.

The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) launched launched an electronic food registry for companies to quickly report potential food-borne illnesses to the federal government.  Food facilities must alert the FDA within 24 hours of finding any contaminant in a product that might severely sicken or kill people or animals.  The system is intended to foster a quicker response to food-borne outbreaks.

Sometimes product recalls in North America relate to contaminated ingredients, such as tomatoes, spinach and peanut butter, that have been used in the manufacture of food products.  While most recalls are precautionary and not necessarily linked to human illness, it is important that  appropriate action be taken to mitigate any possible risk of exposure.  To protect public health, it is our responsibility to investigate when we are made aware of these events to determine whether we source ingredients from the same supplier and take swift action if we do.  To date this year there have been over 75 product recalls and alerts in Canada.

Typically, we are notified of a product recall from several  publicly available sources.   In Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) sends out alerts and recall notices. Individuals can subscribe to receive email alerts directly from the CFIA’s website at http://www.inspection.gc.ca/.  In the U.S.,  recall announcements are posted by  the  USDA-FSIS for meat  products and the FDA for non-meat  products. 

In the case of the recent recall related to pistachio nuts contaminated with Salmonella, we received the notice from Foodtrack  an international notification system we subscribe to.

Upon obtaining an alert, our  Food Safety team follows established food safety protocols to verify whether any products we produce may be affected  by the ingredients in question.  The first step is to track any food products that may contain the ingredient and then identify the supplier  to confirm whether the source is related to the recall notice.  In  last week’s pistachio nut recall, we were able to quickly establish that Maple Leaf did not source ingredients from the same source and as a result, our products are not affected.

As  new and better testing methods are developed, and as companies and government regulators look more diligently for potential contaminants in the food supply, chances are there will be more food recalls.  Health Canada and the CFIA will continue to introduce new regulatory  programs, such as the recent updates to the Listeria policy in ready to eat meat products, which result in increased testing and  government oversight, which in turn could lead to more recalls .  With regard to greater government testing and oversight,  more recalls is an indication that an important element of Canada’s food safety system is working.   The recall process is an important element of the food safety system that serves to protect public health and  the industry and government must learn from them to build better food safety performance!