Chef Pineiro's Sofrito con Cilantro, with Coriander, NET WT./PESO NETO 12 oz (340g) and…
AC Culinary Group LLC. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 18 December 2019 as Class II. The recall was initiated by the firm. The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products.
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
- Chef Pineiro's Sofrito con Cilantro, with Coriander, NET WT./PESO NETO 12 oz (340g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g)
- Reason for recall
- The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products.
- Recalling firm
- AC Culinary Group LLC.
- Firm location
- Catano, Puerto Rico, United States
- Classification
- Class II
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-0232-2020
- Quantity
- 23,040 units (12 oz) and 9,720 units (32 oz)
- Distribution
- US distribution only (Puerto Rico).
- Initiated
- 12 November 2019
- Reported by FDA
- 18 December 2019
- Terminated
- 7 May 2020
- Firm notified by
- Telephone
- Product codes
- Lots # 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 21 and 22 Exp 4/2020`
Reading this record
Five things about this record are not in the record itself, and each one changes how it should be read.
- Class II means the FDA judged a remote probability of serious harm, or a probability of temporary or medically reversible harm. 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 4 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 4 separate recalls, which almost every published figure does, overstates it by a factor of 4. All 4 of them are listed on this page.
- The recall ran for 6 months, from 12 November 2019 to termination on 7 May 2020. 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 FDA published the enforcement report 5 weeks after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of fresh produce run a median of 7 months, so this one was about typical for its category. Fresh produce is the category where contamination arrives before the facility does: irrigation water, soil amendments and field workers are the routes, and nothing downstream of the farm is a kill step for a product eaten raw.
What this recall was for
Foreign material
A foreign material recall means something that is not food was found in food: metal, plastic, glass, wood or insect matter, usually shed by equipment during processing.
A preventive controls plan covers foreign material 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 117.40
- Equipment and utensils: plant equipment designed and maintained so it cannot contaminate food with lubricants, fuel, metal fragments or contaminated water.
- 21 CFR 117.80(c)
- Manufacturing operations: the measures that protect food from contamination during processing, including the effective ones against metal and other extraneous material.
- 21 CFR 117.150
- Corrective actions: what a facility does when a preventive control was not properly implemented, including identifying and correcting the problem and evaluating the food for safety.
Filed under fresh produce. A product can sit in more than one.
Every product in this recall
The FDA opened 4 enforcement records for this one recall, one per product code. This page carries all of them; the 3 below each have their own page with that product’s lot codes and distribution, and search engines are pointed here for the recall as a whole.
| Reported | Product | Firm | Reason | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Ajo con Cilantro, with Coriander, NET WT./PESO NETO 8 oz (233g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Sofrito con Albahaca, with Basil, NET WT./PESO NETO 12 oz (340g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Ajo con Albahaca, with Basil, NET WT./PESO NETO 8 oz (233g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
Other fresh produce 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 AC Culinary Group LLC.
The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event.
| Reported | Product | Firm | Reason | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Ajo con Cilantro, with Coriander, NET WT./PESO NETO 8 oz (233g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Sofrito con Albahaca, with Basil, NET WT./PESO NETO 12 oz (340g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
| 2019-12-18 | Chef Pineiro's Ajo con Albahaca, with Basil, NET WT./PESO NETO 8 oz (233g) and NET WT./PESO NETO 32 oz (907g) | AC Culinary Group LLC. | The firm received a customer complaint describing a metal filament in a bottle of one lot of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz. Further investigation determined that the same type of metal filament was found in raw material (dehydrated minced onion) used in the manufacture of Sofrito Cilantro 32 oz and other products. | Class II |
| 2016-08-03 | Label reads in part as: "EL ISLE¿O***SOFRITO GOURMET CON SAZON Y ACHIOTE***PESO NETO/NET WT. ***Keep Refrigerated***Marlin Distributors P.O. Box 8763 Bayamon, PR 00960***HECHO EN PUERTO RICO" Product presentations: 12oz and 32oz | AC Culinary Group LLC | Undeclared food allergen FD&C Yellow #6. | Class II |
All 5 records for AC Culinary Group LLC.
All 2019 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 117.40 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.