The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assigned its second-highest risk alert to 183 pounds of recalled whipped honey that was distributed nationwide.
Concerns that certain flavors of QBee honey product may have small flakes of stainless steel product in it led Queen Been Gardens of Lovell, Wyoming, to a voluntary recall, according to an Aug. 1 FDA enforcement advisory.
The FDA designated the recall a Class 2 event, which is the federal government’s second-highest risk alert and is described on the FDA website as exposure to a product that may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences.
The recall and FDA classification is applicable to 129 11-ounce jars of QBee Whipped Honey Raspberry, 112 11-ounce jars of QBee Whipped Honey Pure, and 24 11-ounce jars of QBee Whipped Huckleberry.
Company leaders did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The FDA said the contaminated honey jars were packed on June 23 and bear lot codes 206235 and 206305.
Food recalls have been on the rise in recent years. A Trace One study found U.S. food recalls increased by 15 percent in the past five years.
Foreign object contamination accounted for 11.6 percent of all recalls, undeclared allergens accounted for nearly 40 percent, bacterial contamination accounted for 21.1 percent, and lead contamination accounted for 1.7 percent, according to the study.The potential contamination by a foreign object, specifically metal, has alarmed some professionals in the food industry, including food industry consultant Bryan Quoc Le.
"Lead and foreign objects are easier to detect using fairly basic chemical, bulk material filtration, and X-ray diagnostics,” Quoc Le told NTD. “These systems are also less expensive to implement. Lead contamination is also a very serious issue that is often detected further up the ingredient supply chain, where contamination occurs at the point of harvesting or processing of ingredients."
Just last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that some 1,065 pounds of fully cooked frozen ground beef were recalled in five states over concerns it may be contaminated with foreign material, specifically metal.
The contaminated ready-to-eat meat product was packed by Ada Valley Meat Company of Ada, Michigan, on May 28 and May 30 and sent to establishments and distributors in California, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“The problem was discovered after the firm notified FSIS that it received a consumer complaint reporting that pieces of metal were found in the product,” a July 29 FSIS alert stated.