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Label Mixup Prevention Using Vision Inspection
Mettler Toledo
UK food safety authorities have issued a warning to food processors over the use of food grade chemicals from a Northern Ireland-based distributor following the death of a woman in Italy.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued a precautionary warning to companies and individuals who have bought food grade chemicals for food production from Antrim-based Mistral Laboratory Chemicals.
Products supplied by Mistral have been implicated in an on-going Italian investigation into the death of a 29-year old woman who ingested Sorbitol purchased from the company during a doctor’s test for food intolerance.
Two other people in the country have also been hospitalised after consuming the product, which is commonly used as a sweetener in sugar-free sweets and chewing gum.
The company, which sells products through its website and through other sites including eBay, has voluntarily ceased distribution of its food grade products, the FSA added.
Italian investigation
FSA spokesman Brad Smythe told FoodProductionDaily.com that the actions follow an alert from the Italian authorities and are purely precautionary while the investigation continues.
“In addition to the precautionary action we are working closely with the Italian investigators,” Smythe added.
Mistral, which distributes within the UK and internationally, were pinpointed as a potential source of the concern “following information received from the Italian authorities.”
“Italian authorities are investigating the circumstances of the recent death of a woman at a private medical clinic in Italy. Products for food use supplied by Mistral have been implicated in that investigation,” said the FSA warning.
“However, enquiries are still on-going. There have been no reported food related incidents in the UK linked to products supplied by Mistral, and the FSA is issuing a warning as a precaution.”
According to the Italian Health Ministry, the batch of Sorbitol had been repackaged by Mistral and sold to the clinic doctor through the internet.
An Italian Health Ministry statement said: “The substance has been impounded pending trial and is awaiting the performance of laboratory testing.”
eBay ban
Mistral Laboratory Chemicals supply chemicals for food and non-food purposes. The company’s website is currently unavailable.
Online auction website eBay has since blocked the global sale of Sorbitol on its site.
“Sorbitol is a very common surrogate for sugar and it is a substance that can be legally sold both through the traditional channels and online. However, as a precautionary measure, eBay immediately cancelled all sales of sorbitol until further clarifications,” said a statement from the online auctioneer.
1 comment (Comments are now closed)
Hopefully this does not escalate into a wider issue
As this tragic story evolves and more information comes to light there are any number of potential outcomes:
Suppliers of Sorbitol suffer a drop in sales volumes, possibly due to a factor outside of their control
Questions are asked about the safety and security of selling foodstuffs online or through channels that may not be as tightly controlled as the traditional retail channels.
There is a bigger issue here relating to food adulteration and we see more incidents in coming days/weeks/months
This was a one of isolated incident of mislabelling at the online supplier and is unlikely to reoccur.
A concern that we have had for a while is that fraudsters could target the food supply chain, by substituting cheap or adulterated ingredients for more expensive ingredients and introducing these into the food supply chain at some point to achieve financial gain.
Whilst the majority of players in the food supply chain work hard and tirelessly to implement robust supplier management systems and are constantly reviewing their supply chain risk assessments, our food supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Every business needs to ensure that their supplier approval procedures are maintained up to date at all times, their food specifications are accurate and current and they frequently challenge their traceability systems.
Where they cannot get the necessary information from a supplier, for any reason, they should conclude that the supplier is too high risk and should be delisted.
This will reduce the risk of a business and its brand being implicated.
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Posted by Stephen Whyte
30 March 2012 | 18h34