Salmonella Scare – Australian Pre-Packed Salads Recalled

In Ireland, one would generally only link salmonella to raw meats and poultry, foods containing raw or undercooked eggs and unpasteurised dairy products. In warmer climates, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere the temperature danger zone which can affect other foods is more commonplace.

Pre-packed salad is most likely to come into contact with the pathogen salmonella through bugs which have come into contact with fertiliser, or live animals. Often this is just a small number of leaves but as they are sold in mixed bags, the result is similar to that of contaminated minced beef.

Other illness from pre-packaged salads aren’t completely uncommon in the Northern hemisphere. A listeria monocytogenes outbreak is currently affecting North America. In the same region, E.coli in pre-packaged spinach killed three people and made more than 200 sick in 2006. In the U.K in 2012 300 cases of Cryptosporidium parvum were linked to ready-to-eat salad in the United Kingdom.

Companies in Australia have become increasingly wary of the long term costs of contamination and product recall, the effects on whole categories has been considerable. Patties Foods recently said the mass recall of its Nanna's and Creative Gourmet frozen berries products amid a hepatitis A scare in 2015 was the reason for the 87 per cent ($14 million) fall in net profit of latest figures.

In February of this year retailers Woolworths, Coles, Safeway and Bi-Lo became quickly aware of salmonella reports affecting 20 possible SKU’s. The policy to use a single supplier for this product proved to be a wise one. The supplier Tripod Farmers voluntarily recalled a large number of its lines nationally. However, repercussions can be seen across the whole category at store level. There are 208 cases being investigated, 5 of these are in Western Australia where the supplier doesn’t even distribute.

For more information please contact mark.halvey@ucdconnect.ie

Source: Bord Bia - Salmonella Scare – Australian Pre-Packed Salads Recalled