Plainview Milk Products Cooperative in Plainview, Minn., last Tuesday issued a voluntary recall of its agglomerated, or instant, products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The list of affected products includes instant nonfat dry milk, instant whey proteins, instant fruit stabilizers and gums that were packaged and sold by the company between June 4, 2007, and June 4, 2009.
IDFA is working closely with the Food and Drug Administration and Plainview Milk Products Cooperative and offers the following advice to member companies that may have received the affected ingredients.
"If your company has used or distributed any of the affected products originating from Plainview, IDFA recommends that you either prepare a voluntary recall notice identifying the products and distribute it to all customers in receipt of the affected products, or provide to FDA any documentation demonstrating that the implicated ingredients received sufficient treatment that would inactivate the Salmonella," said Cary Frye, IDFA vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.
Sufficient treatments to inactivate Salmonella, according to FDA, include dairy pasteurization times and temperatures that are published in the 2007 Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. For non-dairy products or dairy products that are not pasteurized, FDA has asked affected companies to submit documentation to FDA district recall coordinators, who will evaluate the information and respond. A list of coordinators is available here.
All affected companies may expect a visit from an FDA investigator very soon, said Allen Sayler, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards. Other companies that may have received the products in downstream distribution are also likely to meet with an FDA investigator at a later date.
"To prepare for these visits, companies need to assemble records that identify the entire list of products in which the Plainview ingredients were used, regardless of whether you used sufficient treatment to inactivate Salmonella during processing," said Sayler. "Companies also will need a complete list of customers that received products with the Plainview affected ingredients."
Sayler reminds companies that decide to issue a voluntary recall notice to document their ongoing efforts in a Recall Status Report to the Food and Drug Administration. This report should detail how many customers were notified, how many notified customers responded and how many did not, the method of notification, the quantity of the suspect products that the customers possessed when notified, how many suspect products were returned, the results of the effectiveness checks and an estimated date for completing recall activities.
IDFA encourages companies that are able to rule out any link between their finished products and the affected ingredients from Plainview to prepare a statement for potential distribution to customers and FDA.
More details from FDA are available here. Plainview's Product Recall due to Potential Health Risk is available here.
Plainview Milk Products Cooperative has recalled the following products:
- Instant nonfat dry milk
- Instant nonfat dry milk with vitamins A and D3
- Instant nonfat dry milk - high heat
- Satiaxne CX800QD gums - xanthum gum
- Visco gum 202-GR - guar gum
- Visco gum BE-GR - locust bean gum
- Dairy Tech FV200 - stabilizer
- Instant whey protein concentrate - 80 percent
- MFC nutrition instant milk protein isolate
For more information, members may contact Allen Sayler, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards, at asayler@idfa.org or (202) 220-3544.