Food Industry & Recall Insights
The Hidden Pathogen & Safety Trap Beneath Your Feet: Is Your Floor Mat a Risk?
Anti-fatigue mats are essential for employee comfort and injury prevention, but in food and beverage manufacturing, they can quickly become a silent threat if not properly maintained. Over time, these mats develop cracks, slits, and wear that allow food debris, liquids, and soil to collect deep within. The result? A warm, moist breeding ground for
If You Don’t Manage Your Gaskets… Your Gaskets Will Manage You!
*Take a walk through your plant. *Look down at the gaskets. *Do they match? Are they in good condition? Are they where they should be—or worse, are some on the floor? If your answer isn’t a confident yes to all of those (except to being on the floor), it’s time for a hard truth: A
Is This COP Sink the Weakest Link in Your Food Safety Chain?
One of the most overlooked failure points in many food and beverage plants is the Clean-Out-of-Place (COP) tank. At a glance, it seems simple, a stainless-steel sink filled with parts. But beneath the surface, it could be silently setting your operation up for failure. Here’s what we see all too often: – Parts thrown in
May 4, 2025 – May 10, 2025 – 6 F&B Recalls (6 FDA, 0 USDA)
Current Class 1 FDA & USDA Recall Trends FDA Recalls / Reason(s) 5/9/25 – Food & Beverage – Breads, bagels, cookies and croutons – Products may contain undeclared eggs, soy, and milk. “The recall was initiated after it was discovered that products containing eggs, soy, and milk were distributed in labels that did not reveal
April 27, 2025 – May 3, 2025 – 9 F&B Recalls (5 FDA, 4 USDA)
Current Class 1 FDA & USDA Recall Trends FDA Recalls / Reason(s) 5/3/25 – Food & Beverage – Tomatoes – Potential Foodborne Illness – Salmonella “Hanshaw & Capling Farms initiated the recall due to the possible presence of Salmonella in their facility.” 1 5/2/25 – Food & Beverage – Tomatoes – Potential Foodborne Illness –
April 20, 2025 – April 26, 2025 – 3 F&B Recalls (2 FDA, 1 USDA)
Current Class 1 FDA & USDA Recall Trends FDA Recalls / Reason(s) 4/26/25 – Food & Beverage – Dark Chocolate Covered Macadamias – Undeclared cashew, almond. “The recall was initiated after Mauna Loa’s internal quality control process identified that the affected batch, manufactured by a third-party co-manufacturer, contained undeclared almonds and cashews. Immediate action was taken to contain
April 13, 2025 – April 19, 2025 – 5 F&B Recalls (4 FDA, 1 USDA)
Current Class 1 FDA & USDA Recall Trends FDA Recalls / Reason(s) 4/18/25 – Food & Beverage – Gerber® Soothe N Chew® Teething Sticks – Potential choking hazard for babies and young children. “We are issuing a second press release about this recall due to recent reports of recalled product still available for sale on
Can You Spot the Issues? Why Your Floors Might Be Telling a Bigger Story
In a well-run facility, floors do more than support your operations, they reflect them. A floor in good repair isn’t just about appearances; it signals a culture of safety, accountability, and operational discipline. Here’s why floors and drains should always be a top priority: Cleanability & Sanitation Damaged floors create harborage points, perfect for pathogens,
This Foreign Material Failure Saved Us—Here’s How We Turned It Into Quality and Operational Win!
Sometimes it takes a near miss to spark real improvement. In this case, it was debris, small splinters from pails that had been stored on in storage racks underneath broken pallets. The failure was caught internally before it became a food safety event, but not before we lost a full batch and had to shut
My operation Lost over $100,000 in One Day Because of This Overlooked Failure – Don’t Make the Same Mistake!
It’s always the simple things that come back to bite you. I’ve seen this too many times in both food and beverage facilities: a small leak at a valve or gasket that’s ignored until it triggers a massive failure. One day, it cost me over $100,000 in product loss and downtime. It could’ve easily led