Frozen Yellowfin Tuna Ground Meat, Keep Frozen, Imported/Distributed: Mical Seafood…

Northern Fisheries Ltd. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 1 January 2020 as Class II. The recall was initiated by the firm. Products have the potential to cause scombrotoxin fish poisoning because they may have increased levels of histamine.

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

Frozen Yellowfin Tuna Ground Meat, Keep Frozen, Imported/Distributed: Mical Seafood Inc., 10400 Griffin Rd, Suite #209, Cooper City, Florida 33328

Reason for recall

Products have the potential to cause scombrotoxin fish poisoning because they may have increased levels of histamine.

Recalling firm

Northern Fisheries Ltd.

Firm location

Little Compton, Rhode Island, United States

Classification

Class II

Status

Terminated

Recall number

F-0460-2020

Quantity

1,251 cases

Distribution

Distributors in 5 states: FL, GA, NY, IL and RI

Initiated

6 December 2019

Reported by FDA

1 January 2020

Terminated

12 June 2020

Firm notified by

E-Mail

Product codes

all 2019 production dates codes

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 3 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 3 separate recalls, which almost every published figure does, overstates it by a factor of 3. 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 3 of them.
• The recall ran for 6 months, from 6 December 2019 to termination on 12 June 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 distribution pattern names 4 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 4 weeks after the firm began the recall.
• Recalls of fish or seafood run a median of 5 months, so this one was about typical for its category. Fish and fishery products are the one food category with their own HACCP regulation in the United States, 21 CFR part 123, because the hazards are species-specific: histamine in scombroid fish, ciguatera in reef fish, and Listeria in cold-smoked products.

Named in the distribution pattern: Georgia, New York, Illinois, Rhode Island. 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

Filed under fish and seafood and meat and poultry. A product can sit in more than one.

Other fish and seafood 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 Northern Fisheries Ltd.

The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event. 8 other records name this firm.

All 9 records for Northern Fisheries Ltd.

All 2020 recalls · All FDA food recall data