For more than a month, hundreds of food processors throughout North America -- makers of candy, cookies, snacks and 1,000 or more other edibles -- added their brand names to the Food and Drug Administration's list of peanut-containing items that shouldn't be eaten.
At the time, people questioned why the FDA didn't pay closer attention to food that was going to be used in countless other products.
The agency's answer then was: It can't.
basicfoodflavors.com
Salmonella was found in a flavoring agent called hydrolyzed vegetable protein made by Basic Food Flavors. The additive is used in many other food products.
It still can't today. And the spread of salmonella from contamination that began in a single food additive is again racing throughout the country.
It's not peanuts this time but a flavoring agent called hydrolyzed vegetable protein. An FDA alert today said it was produced and sold by Basic Food Flavors Inc. But the flavoring – which comes in 1-pound and 25-pound packaging -- is not sold to consumers, only to institutional users and food processors.
The FDA conducted an investigation at the company's Las Vegas facility after a food producer that bought the flavoring from Basic Food Flavors notified federal agents that it had found Salmonella Tennessee in the vegetable protein.
In answer to the criticism about its actions during the peanut episode, FDA officials said they have no way knowing to whom suppliers sell their food products, what those products are and where they're sold. The FDA says it doesn't have the personnel or the needed regulations to handle the millions of shipments made within the food industry every week.
But what was seen with the dangerous peanuts, and what we're beginning to see with the flavoring agent, is that producers of end products -- those items that actually reach store and warehouse shelves -- are declaring their own voluntary recalls. Most corporate lawyers would approve of such a response.
The FDA updates a database of the recalled items and provides photos of the labels when possible. There is also a link to a spreadsheet that offers code numbers for each of the potentially dangerous food products.
By midday, the FDA had listed 56 products that use the Basic Food flavoring, including salad dressings, dips, packaged snacks, potato chips and soup mixes.
Since the flavoring is heavily used throughout the country, that list of recalled items is expected to grow.
Food scientists say the processed foods that use flavor enhancers of this type number in the thousands.
Both the FDA and the food pathogen detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there have been no reports of illness attributed to the questionable flavoring. But the CDC cautions that it could take several days for reports of salmonella to be confirmed by analysis in state laboratories and for the information to arrive at federal agencies.
"Our investigators were able to identify this problem before any illnesses occurred," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.
The FDA describes salmonella as an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy people infected with salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
