2 replies to this topic

[Charles Chew]

An unforeseen hazard has no measurable risk assessment value attached to it in a "Hazard Analysis Exercise" and yet the impact on food safety is tremendously huge.

Question is: What is the level of "emergency preparedness and response programs" in a real situation like this one

Chocolate recall after Australian poison threat

08/07/2005 - Tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars chocolate bars were recalled in the Australian state of New South Wales following a threat to contaminate the products, writes Claire Johnston.

Masterfoods, a management organisation that represents private US company Mars in Australia and New Zealand, said that a threat has been made to poison a member of the public using tampered chocolate bars.

The company has begun the recall of tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars bars from over 5,000 stores in New South Wales as a result.

"Due to the very serious nature of the tampering threats, we are instigating an immediate withdrawal of Snickers and Mars from all NSW retail outlets," company president Andy Weston-Webb said in a statement.

"No one should eat a Mars or Snickers bar that they have bought. Please destroy it ... it is not safe to eat Mars or Snickers bars," he added.

Police tests indicated that a Snickers bar posted to MasterFoods' head office last month had been contaminated with an unidentified substance. This was followed by a letter this week in which the author claimed to have contaminated seven Snickers and Mars bars in the Australian capital, Sydney.

"There is a foreign contaminant definitely within the bar, as to what that substance is, chemically or physically, we are not aware," said a New South Wales police spokesperson.

Australian police have yet to find evidence that the threat has been carried out.

Charles Chew

[yorkshire]

This is a really scary issue. The decision to recall product is a really hard one especially when you have a brand to protect. Once that decision has been made though it should be relitavely "easy" to deal with.

How do we decide when the risk is real or not?

Here is a recent story where it appears that no product was recalled:

POISON plot has been uncovered at one of Scotland's biggest biscuit plants. 15/6/05

Workers at McVities in Glasgow face DNA and fingerprint tests after the firm received a threatening letter, warning their product mix had been laced with weedkiller.

The letter was delivered last Friday to the Tollcross factory, which makes favourites McVities Digestives and Hobnobs.

Bosses at the plant immediately called in police and suspended deliveries, although these are now back to normal.

Strathclyde Police's serious crime squad were investigating and the Food Standards Agency were informed.

More than a million biscuits are made at the factory every day, with up to 220,000 produced every hour.

The company were checking every batch still inside the building.

Every one of their 780 staff - and up to 250 agency workers -will be fingerprinted in an attempt to catch the person who sent the letter. Police are also looking at taking DNA.

Production briefly stopped on Monday night when all staff were called to a meeting with police.

A United Biscuits spokesman said: 'We take this issue extremely seriously. As soon as we received the threat, we initiated a thorough investigation of our site, ingredients and products.'

One worker, who didn't want to be named, said: 'They said they had received a letter, saying something had been put in one of the mixes.

'The police have said they want to fingerprint everyone. They are also talking about taking DNA samples.'

Insiders say the threat may have came from a disgruntled former employee who had access to all the ingredients.

The worker said:'Some staff have been with the company for 20 to 30 years but there are agency staff who stay for a few days and then are off. The turnover is huge.'

United Biscuits bosses from America toured the plant just last week. Contractors were brought in to spruce the place up and carry out maintenance work.

The plant has been on its present Clydeford Park site since the 1920s

[Simon]

I can't believe someone would even consider doing this to Hobnobs - it's tantamount to sacrilege!

Do we know what happened - did they catch anyone?

Regards,
Simon