11 replies to this topic

[Scampi]

Seriously----this was so easily avoided!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

More than 61,000 pounds Trader Joe’s steamed chicken soup dumplings are being recalled due to possible contamination with hard plastic from a permanent marker.

The dumplings were produced by CJ Foods Manufacturing Beaumont Corporation in California on December 7 and shipped to Trader Joe’s locations nationwide, according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The recalled products are Trader Joe’s Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings sold in 6-ounce boxes with plastic trays. They have lot codes 03.07.25.C1-1 and 03.07.25.C1-2 printed on the side of the box and say P-46009 inside the USDA mark of inspection.

 

 

 

 

The manufacturer received complaints from consumers who found hard plastic in the dumplings.  USDA said there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions or injury.

“FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them,” it said in a news release. “These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”

Consumers can contact CJ Foods Manufacturing Beaumont Corporation’s Consumer Experience Department at 800-544-6855.

 

 

 

 

[jfrey123]

Anyone know a source for metal detectable Sharpies now? LOL

I'm sorry this happened to the company responsible, but cases like this are great to keep filed in your QA back pocket when production managers get snippy about requiring metal detectable pens and the like. Or when you ride them about letting production line workers handle pens and whatnot. This recall is stupid, avoidable, and now the company is going to be out a significant amount of money all for a basic GMP violation.

[Brothbro]

Since the product is sold in plastic trays, I'm guessing x-ray is not applicable here since the tray would inevitably trigger as a detection. It really does go to show how important metal detectable implements really are! But like jfrey mentions as well, production workers don't even need to be using pens near batching equipment in most cases. You can add ingredients to the batch while filling out paperwork at a nearby table that isn't close to the opening of the blender. 

 

But this was a permanent marker...what purpose would that have near batching equipment? All paperwork should be filled out with pens, not markers...obviously something was going wrong in this plant!

[MDaleDDF]

the thing that sticks out to me is the size.    61k elbows is a whole heck of a lot.  I wonder how many batches that is.   And how did so much product get affected.   It would seem obvious they don't know, so they're casting a very wide net?

 

And yeah, you honestly shouldn't need a pen or marker at all around batching.   We use them for tagging and stuff in the lab, but not on the production floor.   Brilliant. 

[TylerJones]

Foreign material could of been from a supplier and not introduced at the plant level. Always a possbility 

[G M]

Anyone know a source for metal detectable Sharpies now? LOL

I'm sorry this happened to the company responsible, but cases like this are great to keep filed in your QA back pocket when production managers get snippy about requiring metal detectable pens and the like. Or when you ride them about letting production line workers handle pens and whatnot. This recall is stupid, avoidable, and now the company is going to be out a significant amount of money all for a basic GMP violation.

 

This is one area where the metal detectors can beat the x-ray.  Most metal detectable plastics are in the same density range as common foods.

 

https://detectamet.c...ens.html?cat=13

 

 

 

Foreign material could of been from a supplier and not introduced at the plant level. Always a possbility 

 

Possible, but if they saw the reported pieces and have the same kind of writing implement in their plant it becomes hard to say "it wasn't us".  Even if it came from a supplier, it still made it through the manufacturer's FM detection.

[kfromNE]

the thing that sticks out to me is the size.    61k elbows is a whole heck of a lot.  I wonder how many batches that is.   And how did so much product get affected.   It would seem obvious they don't know, so they're casting a very wide net?

 

And yeah, you honestly shouldn't need a pen or marker at all around batching.   We use them for tagging and stuff in the lab, but not on the production floor.   Brilliant. 

 

Most likely the whole production run that day and they couldn't pinpoint when it happened that day. 

Nothing is worse than taking equipment apart at the end of the day and finding an issue like a shredded plastic part from a grinder. It's gut wrenching. 

 

As for the marker - most likely in someone's pocket that was adding ingredients to the mixer which shouldn't have been there. 

[MDaleDDF]

Hmmm.   Interesting.   If they found plastic in the machinery though they'd have dumped it right there, why ship it?   Perhaps indeed it came from a supplier?   But sounds like they had no idea they had an issue until they got a complaint, and at that point had no choice but to recall anything that was a remote possibility of being adulterated.

Bummer for sure.

[kfromNE]

Hmmm.   Interesting.   If they found plastic in the machinery though they'd have dumped it right there, why ship it?   Perhaps indeed it came from a supplier?   But sounds like they had no idea they had an issue until they got a complaint, and at that point had no choice but to recall anything that was a remote possibility of being adulterated.

Bummer for sure.

 

I was speaking hypothetically on the plastic. It's happened to us before and we did do that - dump it. Ours was from a part not properly put in place and the grinder grinded the plastic part down all day.

 

My guess is like what Scampi said - they didn't have use metal detector pens and made it in the product in pieces. I would be concerned of the permanent marker ink too. 

[ChristinaK]

Yeah, I wonder why someone felt they needed a permanent marker near batch equipment...and how fast does their production run or how long did the missing marker go unnoticed if they have to recall 61k lbs. of product? Oof.

 

At my last place, the only ones allowed pens in the production room were QA and the supervisor, and only 1 pen, and I'd remind them to check their waist pockets for the pen every time they walked out of the room. We didn't have smocks with pockets above the waist because we wanted to eliminate the risk of anything falling out when they bend over to inspect something.

[MDaleDDF]

This only kind of goes with the discussion here, but kind of, so I'll ask:

Anyone else having problems with employees all of the sudden?   Mine didn't drop a pen into the product, but they did screw up plenty since the new year, and it's our slow season.   It should be easier now than ever.

We've been pretty good the last year or two, but all of the sudden I have employees doing absolutely idiotic things, being lazy, lots of bad batches, or the biggie:   Not showing up at all.    If you don't show up you don't even have a chance to do a BAD job, lol...   Right when I thought I couldn't take it anymore my lab tech called in today.    So I'm now a day behind on everything so I can do QA.  It's not a huge deal, but yeah, it peed me off.

Anyone else seeing issues like this?   Like wtf, is the moon out of phase or something?!?!?!?!   Don't these people have bills to pay too?!?!?!?!?!!? 

Off my soapbox now....lol

[ChristinaK]

This only kind of goes with the discussion here, but kind of, so I'll ask:

Anyone else having problems with employees all of the sudden?   Mine didn't drop a pen into the product, but they did screw up plenty since the new year, and it's our slow season.   It should be easier now than ever.

We've been pretty good the last year or two, but all of the sudden I have employees doing absolutely idiotic things, being lazy, lots of bad batches, or the biggie:   Not showing up at all.    If you don't show up you don't even have a chance to do a BAD job, lol...   Right when I thought I couldn't take it anymore my lab tech called in today.    So I'm now a day behind on everything so I can do QA.  It's not a huge deal, but yeah, it peed me off.

Anyone else seeing issues like this?   Like wtf, is the moon out of phase or something?!?!?!?!   Don't these people have bills to pay too?!?!?!?!?!!? 

Off my soapbox now....lol

 

TBH, it sounds like a Food Safety Culture/company culture issue...that maybe the company is not investing in employee retainment (pay increases, benefits, recognition programs, etc.). I've been on the low-wage end of food production, and nothing is more demotivating than high expectations for low pay. For example...If I haven't seen my pay increase to keep up with inflation, I'm going to be less motivated to work hard or put in the same effort. I might call in "sick" so I can make a couple of interviews for a higher-paying position elsewhere.

At a manager level, I'd be arguing with senior management about increasing the pay or coming up with something to retain employees. After all, it's cheaper to give current employees a bit of a raise than to spend all the time and money searching for and training replacements.

 

Although sometimes poor performance is related to personal matters other than money, too. We had a dip in quality for about a year after a production supervisor's son was murdered. If you can identify why certain people aren't showing up, either physically or mentally, and a pattern emerges, then you can figure out how to address it.