Undeclared Allergens main reason for food recalls

In the second quarter of 2013, sixty-five percent of recalls from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) were due to an undeclared allergen.

Similarly, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recorded that 60 percent of its recalls occurred due to undeclared allergens, which is an increase of 34 percent from the previous quarter.

These results show that allergens continue to be a top recall trend quarter over quarter.

Related: ExpertRECALL quarterly recall index, Q2 2013

In April, the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a notice with new instructions for inspection program personnel (IPP) for how to verify that establishments are accurately labeling the eight most common food allergens.

Food manufacturers must ensure that they are in complete compliance with all verification processes before an inspector arrives onsite,as it is almost guaranteed that records will be audited and production processes will be observed on a more frequent basis.

Source: ExpertRECALL