Suan's Scotch Bonnet Pepper Relish 9.8 oz. packaged in a glass jar with a metal lid.
S & S Foods, Inc. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 4 May 2016 as Class III. The recall was initiated by the firm. Some jars were reported to have swollen or leaking lids.
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
- Suan's Scotch Bonnet Pepper Relish 9.8 oz. packaged in a glass jar with a metal lid.
- Reason for recall
- Some jars were reported to have swollen or leaking lids.
- Recalling firm
- S & S Foods, Inc.
- Firm location
- Mustang, Oklahoma, United States
- Classification
- Class III
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-1253-2016
- Quantity
- 262 jars
- Distribution
- Oklahoma
- Initiated
- 14 January 2016
- Reported by FDA
- 4 May 2016
- Terminated
- 30 November 2016
- Firm notified by
- Product codes
- BEST By date 12-01-2016 to 07-31-2017.
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 record is the only one the FDA opened for its recall event, so it covers a single product code.
- The recall ran for 11 months, from 14 January 2016 to termination on 30 November 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 FDA published the enforcement report 4 months after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of a sauce, dip or condiment run a median of 6 months, so this one was longer than usual for its category. Sauces and dips sit at the intersection of the acidified foods rule and the allergen rule: an equilibrium pH above 4.6 turns a shelf-stable product into a botulism risk, and the ingredient list is long enough that an allergen is easy to lose.
What this recall was for
Spoilage and mould
A spoilage recall means the food degraded before its date: mould growth, unintended fermentation, swelling or rancidity, usually traced to a seal, a formulation or a storage temperature.
A preventive controls plan covers spoilage 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 117.93
- Warehousing and distribution: storage and transport under conditions that protect food against contamination and against deterioration of the food and its container.
- 21 CFR 117.80(b)(3)
- Time and temperature: holding food at temperatures that do not allow microorganisms to grow, and for no longer than the process allows.
Filed under sauces, dips and condiments and spices and seasonings. A product can sit in more than one.
Other sauces, dips and condiments 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.
All 2016 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 117.93 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.