Heartland Flax Meal, Net Wt. 50 lbs.
Specialty Commodities, Inc. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 16 March 2016 as Class I. The recall was initiated by the firm. Specialty Commodities, Inc. is recalling a specific lot of Flax Meal that may be contaminated with Salmonella typhimurium.
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
- Heartland Flax Meal, Net Wt. 50 lbs.
- Reason for recall
- Specialty Commodities, Inc. is recalling a specific lot of Flax Meal that may be contaminated with Salmonella typhimurium.
- Recalling firm
- Specialty Commodities, Inc.
- Firm location
- Fargo, North Dakota, United States
- Classification
- Class I
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-0398-2016
- Quantity
- 340 - 50 lb bags
- Distribution
- CA, FL, IL, NJ, NY, and PA
- Initiated
- 2 November 2015
- Reported by FDA
- 16 March 2016
- Terminated
- 26 April 2016
- Firm notified by
- Telephone
- Product codes
- Manufacturing Lot Code: 2T330-04515-101
Reading this record
Five things about this record are not in the record itself, and each one changes how it should be read.
- Class I means the FDA judged a reasonable probability that the product would cause serious health consequences or death. 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 record is the only one the FDA opened for its recall event, so it covers a single product code.
- The recall ran for 6 months, from 2 November 2015 to termination on 26 April 2016. 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 6 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 4 months after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of a prepared meal or sandwich run a median of 6 months, so this one was about typical for its category. Prepared meals concentrate every other category's hazards into one package: they are assembled from many components, handled after any cook step, sold ready to eat, and carry an ingredient list long enough to lose an allergen in.
Named in the distribution pattern: California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania. 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
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 prepared meals and sandwiches. A product can sit in more than one.
Other prepared meals and sandwiches 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 Specialty Commodities, Inc.
The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event. 5 other records name this firm.
| Reported | Product | Firm | Reason | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-04-27 | Almonds, dry roasted, not salted, packaged in 25 lb. cardboard cartons | Specialty Commodities, Inc. | Cashews were mixed with almonds but allergen was not declared on outside packaging. | Class II |
| 2014-09-24 | Thien Minh Cashew Kernels, Net Wt. 50 lb. Product of Vietnam | Specialty Commodities, Inc. | The Cashew Pieces have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. | Class I |
| 2013-03-06 | Egyptian Parsley Flakes, Weight: 10kg Net. | Specialty Commodities, Inc. | Specialty Commodities was notified by a customer that they had found Parsley Flakes to be positive for Salmonella. | Class I |
| 2012-10-24 | Macadamia Nuts Style 2, RAW, SHELLED. DESCRIPTION OF CARTON FROM GUATEMALA: LOT 2 70 JUNE 25/12 423, 43 1 NORMAL/BIG . | Specialty Commodities, Inc. | Specialty Commodities Inc., is recalling product due to potential contamination with Salmonella. | Class I |
| 2012-08-29 | Organic Pinenut, 25 kg, Product of China | Specialty Commodities, Inc. | A customer of Specialty Commodities reported that they found peanuts in a container of pine nuts. | Class I |
All 6 records for Specialty Commodities, Inc.
All 2016 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 117.135(c)(1) 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.