Saputo Cheese USA, Inc. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 14 December 2016 as Class II. The recall was initiated by the firm. Firm received one complaint from a food service customer stating a restaurant employee found white plastic in a loaf of cheese.
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.
Distributors AL, AZ. CA, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, MS. NJ, NJ. NM. NY, OH, OK, OR, PA,, SC, TN, TX, UT, WA
Initiated
23 November 2016
Reported by FDA
14 December 2016
Terminated
10 February 2017
Firm notified by
Two or more of the following: Email, Fax, Letter, Press Release, Telephone, Visit
Product codes
Expiration date: 20161201 - December 1, 2016 Lot #8861017028
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 14 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 14 separate recalls, which almost every published figure does, overstates it by a factor of 14. All 14 of them are listed on this page.
The recall ran for 3 months, from 23 November 2016 to termination on 10 February 2017. 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 18 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 3 weeks after the firm began the recall.
Recalls of cheese run a median of 7 months, so this one was shorter than usual for its category. Cheese dominates Listeria recalls among dairy products because soft and semi-soft varieties hold enough moisture for the organism to grow at refrigeration temperature, and because most are eaten without any further cooking step.
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.
The FDA opened 14 enforcement records for this one recall, one per product code. This page carries all of them; the 13 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.
Firm received one complaint from a food service customer stating a restaurant employee found white plastic in a loaf of cheese.
Class II
Other cheese 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.
Metal fragments. The potential foreign object is a hard, metal (stainless steel), curled spring. Dimensions of a similar spring measure 2.27mm in cross-sectional thickness and 25.38mm in coil width. Spring ends are not sharp but may be sharp if broken/ cut.
Metal fragments in bread. The firm discovered metal fragments in various bread products. They determined the cause to be roasted tomatoes provided by one of their ingredient suppliers.
Metal fragments in bread. The firm discovered metal fragments in various bread products. They determined the cause to be roasted tomatoes provided by one of their ingredient suppliers.
Potentially under pasteurized. The firm was notified by the California Department of Agriculture that due to the broken seal on the pasteurizer, the products may be under pasteurized, and they should recall the products.
Potentially under pasteurized. The firm was notified by the California Department of Agriculture that due to the broken seal on the pasteurizer, the products may be under pasteurized, and they should recall the products.
Potentially under pasteurized. The firm was notified by the California Department of Agriculture that due to the broken seal on the pasteurizer, the products may be under pasteurized, and they should recall the products.
Potentially under pasteurized. The firm was notified by the California Department of Agriculture that due to the broken seal on the pasteurizer, the products may be under pasteurized, and they should recall the products.
Potentially under pasteurized. The firm was notified by the California Department of Agriculture that due to the broken seal on the pasteurizer, the products may be under pasteurized, and they should recall the products.
The 2 lb. units of Frigo Low Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese are being recalled due to the allergen of milk in the product not being declared on the label.
Certain Gouda Cheese products are being recalled after Saputo was notified by their supplier that the cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Certain Gouda Cheese products are being recalled after Saputo was notified by their supplier that the cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
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.
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.
