Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 18 January 2023 as Class III. The recall was initiated by the firm. Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
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
Salad Blends Butter Lettuce butter lettuce and leaf lettuce Packaged By: Dole Exclusively Thoroughly Washed Ready To Eat Perishable Keep Refrigerated NET WT 7 OZ (198 g) UPC 68826721143
UPC
68826721143
Reason for recall
Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
U.S. distribution to the following: AL, CT, FL, GA, LA, MA, MD, NC, NY, PA, SC, VA No foreign distribution.
Initiated
28 November 2022
Reported by FDA
18 January 2023
Terminated
17 January 2023
Firm notified by
Two or more of the following: Email, Fax, Letter, Press Release, Telephone, Visit
Product codes
N33007A, N33007B, N33011A, and N33011B
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 17 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 17 separate recalls, which almost every published figure does, overstates it by a factor of 17. 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 17 of them.
The recall ran for 7 weeks, from 28 November 2022 to termination on 17 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 10 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 7 weeks after the firm began the recall.
Recalls of milk or a dairy product run a median of 7 months, so this one was shorter than usual for its category. Dairy recalls split between pathogen contamination in products that skipped or under-ran pasteurisation and undeclared milk in products that should never have contained it, which is the same allergen viewed from two directions.
These are the closest records in the corpus: the same kind of food. Unlike the firm’s own records below, they come from different companies, which is what makes them a pattern rather than a history.
Undeclared Soy. The firm received complaints of sausage in the burritos. Upon review the firm discovered the sausage contains soy which is not listed on the label.
Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
Incorrect chemical added into wash systems when certain organic loads of vegetables start to create excessive foaming. The incorrect chemical added was a lot of foam detergent.
Behind every recall is a clause 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.
Recall 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.
