THE CHAI BOX CHAI CONCENTRATE UNSWEETENED 16FL OZ/473ML glass bottles UPC 7 93611 81925…
The Chai Box recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 2 November 2022 as Class III. The recall was initiated by the firm. Potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Product was tested and found to have pH level of 4.9.
The record
Every field below is published by the FDA in the openFDA food enforcement database. Check the FDA notice before acting on any recall: this page is a reading of the public record, not a substitute for it.
- Product
- THE CHAI BOX CHAI CONCENTRATE UNSWEETENED 16FL OZ/473ML glass bottles UPC 7 93611 81925 2 REGRIGERATE AFTER OPENING. USE WITHIN 14 DAYS and 64FL OZ/1892ML plastic bottles KEEP REFRIGERATED USE WITHIN 7 DAYS OF OPENING UPC 7 93611 81926 9. INGREDIENTS Water, Black Teas, Spices - Cardamom, Cinnamon, Fennel, Cloves, Ginger ATLANTA, GA THECHAIBOX.COM
- UPC
- 793611819252
- Reason for recall
- Potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Product was tested and found to have pH level of 4.9.
- Recalling firm
- The Chai Box
- Firm location
- Marietta, Georgia, United States
- Classification
- Class III
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-0079-2023
- Quantity
- 1341 16oz bottles & 268 64oz bottles
- Distribution
- Product was shipped to the following states: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI & WY.
- Initiated
- 23 September 2022
- Reported by FDA
- 2 November 2022
- Terminated
- 6 January 2023
- Firm notified by
- Telephone
- Product codes
- BEST BY dates between 9/22/2022 and 03/16/2023
Reading this record
Five things about this record are not in the record itself, and each one changes how it should be read.
- Class III means the FDA judged that the product was unlikely to cause harm but violated FDA labelling or manufacturing regulation. The class is assigned by an agency health hazard evaluation under 21 CFR 7.41, not by the firm.
- The firm started this recall itself. Most FDA food recalls are voluntary, and a recall is a food safety plan working rather than failing. The circumstances in which the agency asks for one instead are set out in 21 CFR 7.45.
- This is one of 2 records covering the same recall event. The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so a recall of a product line appears here many times. Counting these records as 2 separate recalls, which almost every published figure does, overstates it by a factor of 2. Every product code in this event is listed together on the record that covers the whole recall, which is the page a search engine is pointed to for all 2 of them.
- The recall ran for 3 months, from 23 September 2022 to termination on 6 January 2023. Termination means the agency judged that all reasonable effort had been made, under 21 CFR 7.55, and it says nothing about whether product remained in circulation.
- The distribution pattern names 47 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 6 weeks after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of a spice or seasoning run a median of 6 months, so this one was shorter than usual for its category. Spices are a low-moisture, globally sourced, minimally processed ingredient that is added after any kill step, which is the combination that makes Salmonella in a spice lot capable of contaminating every product it was blended into.
Named in the distribution pattern: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington. Those pages count recalls by where the RECALLING FIRM sits, which is a different question from where this product went.
What this recall was for
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium botulinum recalls are recalls of the process, not of a test result: the organism produces its toxin without oxygen, so a low-acid food in a sealed container that missed its scheduled process is recalled whether or not toxin was ever found.
A preventive controls plan covers a botulism risk under the clauses below. This is where the control belongs, not a finding against any firm named on this page: a recall record states a reason, and most of these recalls were initiated by the firm itself.
- 21 CFR 113
- Thermally processed low-acid foods in hermetically sealed containers: the scheduled process, its establishment by a competent authority, and the records proving every container received it.
- 21 CFR 108.35
- Emergency permit control: the registration and process filing a low-acid canned food processor must hold before it may operate.
Filed under spices and seasonings. A product can sit in more than one.
Other spices and seasonings recalls for the same reason
These are the closest records in the corpus: the same kind of food, recalled for a hazard this record also names. Unlike the firm’s own records below, they come from different companies, which is what makes them a pattern rather than a history.
Other records from The Chai Box
The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event.
| Reported | Product | Firm | Reason | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-11-02 | THE CHAI BOX CHAI CONCENTRATE 16FL OZ/473ML glass bottles UPC 7 93611 81925 2 REGRIGERATE AFTER OPENING. USE WITHIN 14 DAYS and 64FL OZ/1892ML plastic bottles KEEP REFRIGERATED USE WITHIN 7 DAYS OF OPENING UPC 7 93611 81926 9. INGREDIENTS Water, Black Teas, Spices - Cardamom, Cinnamon, Fennel, Cloves, Ginger, and Raw Sugar ATLANTA, GA THECHAIBOX.COM | The Chai Box | Potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Product was tested and found to have pH level of 4.9. | Class III |
All 2022 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 113 is the clause behind this recall, and it is one somebody has to produce evidence for at their next audit. Krolda maps supplier documents to the clause they satisfy in FSSC 22000, IFS Food and 21 CFR 117, and routes the corrective action when the evidence is missing.
Early accessRecall records come from the openFDA food enforcement API, published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the public domain. Krolda adds the hazard classification and the clause mapping; neither is an FDA determination. Always check the FDA notice before acting on a recall.