Trader Joe's Hummus quartet; 20 oz. plastic container; Spicy Hummus Roasted Garlic…
Bakkavor Foods USA, Inc. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 7 November 2018 as Class II. The recall was initiated by the firm. Hummus was recalled due to potential Salmonella and/or Listeria monocytogenes contamination
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
- Trader Joe's Hummus quartet; 20 oz. plastic container; Spicy Hummus Roasted Garlic Hummus, Regular Hummus and Tomato Basil Hummus. Perishable, Keep Refrigerated. SKU 39570
- Reason for recall
- Hummus was recalled due to potential Salmonella and/or Listeria monocytogenes contamination
- Recalling firm
- Bakkavor Foods USA, Inc.
- Firm location
- Carson, California, United States
- Classification
- Class II
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-0351-2019
- Quantity
- 47,892 containers
- Distribution
- Firm distributed products to one consignee, Trader Joe's Company, who further distributed the products to their retails stores on a nationwide level.
- Initiated
- 16 October 2018
- Reported by FDA
- 7 November 2018
- Terminated
- 25 February 2019
- Firm notified by
- Two or more of the following: Email, Fax, Letter, Press Release, Telephone, Visit
- Product codes
- Use by dates up through and including 11/08/2018 and plant identification code "C"
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 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. All 2 of them are listed on this page.
- The recall ran for 4 months, from 16 October 2018 to termination on 25 February 2019. 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 3 weeks after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of fresh produce run a median of 7 months, so this one was shorter than usual 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
Listeria monocytogenes
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that grows at refrigeration temperature, which is why it dominates recalls of ready-to-eat foods that are never cooked again before they are eaten.
A preventive controls plan covers Listeria contamination 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 117.135(c)(3)
- Sanitation controls: the controls on cleaning food-contact surfaces and on preventing cross-contact and cross-contamination from insanitary objects, people and equipment.
- 21 CFR 117.165(a)(3)
- Environmental monitoring: testing the processing environment for an environmental pathogen, required when a ready-to-eat food is exposed to the environment before packaging.
- 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.
Salmonella
Salmonella is a bacterium that survives in low-moisture foods for months, which is why it appears in recalls of products that carry no water for it to grow in: nut butters, spices, flour and dry pet food.
A preventive controls plan covers Salmonella contamination 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 117.135(c)(1)
- Process controls: the controls that apply a treatment, such as a validated kill step, at the point where it reduces the hazard to a safe level.
- 21 CFR 117 subpart G
- Supply-chain programme: the approval and verification a receiving facility runs on a supplier when the hazard is controlled before the ingredient arrives.
- 21 CFR 117.165(a)(2)
- Product testing: testing as a verification activity, appropriate to the facility, the food and the nature of the preventive control.
Filed under fresh produce and sauces, dips and condiments. A product can sit in more than one.
Every product in this recall
The FDA opened 2 enforcement records for this one recall, one per product code. This page carries all of them; the 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-11-07 | Trader Joe's Tomato & Basil Hummus Dip, 7 oz. plastic container; Perishable, Keep Refrigerated. SKU 29153 | Bakkavor Foods USA, Inc. | Hummus was recalled due to potential Salmonella and/or Listeria monocytogenes contamination | 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 Bakkavor Foods USA, Inc.
The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event. 9 other records name this firm.
All 10 records for Bakkavor Foods USA Inc.
All 2018 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 117.135(c)(3) 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.