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Almost 23,000 pounds of baked spaghetti and chicken cobbler were recalled in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia late last week after a customer reported finding a piece of metal in one of the food products.
According to the FDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), the recall affects four products made between July 1st and July 29th, and the agency urged consumers not to consume them.
While food safety recall media coverage typically focuses on biological contaminants, a 2024 study found that, over the past two decades, 7% of more than 35,000 food safety recalls were due to foreign object contamination. The most common foreign object was metal, accounting for 42% of all foreign object contamination recalls during the time period.
In a Food Safety Magazine article titled “Keeping Glass and Brittle Plastic Out of Products,” food safety expert Richard F. Stier wrote of the importance of keeping contaminants out of the production space to begin with.
“Establish a policy keeping all glass or ceramics out of the production area except for glass packaging. One does not want persons from the office walking out to the production floor with bottles, coffee mugs, or glasses. It also means that watches must be kept in lockers. Lastly, every operation will have workers who wear eyeglasses. Glasses should be manufactured from shatterproof materials, or the workers with eyeglasses must wear eye covers.”
He also described the need for hygienic design in facilities, noting how there are usually windows or skylights in the production area and the warehouse which must be built with shatterproof glass or coated/covered with plastic to contain breakage. Management at these facilities must also carry out regular, routine internal audits to check for potential threats such as light fixtures or machinery that show wear and tear.
Stier has worked a variety of roles in food safety for decades, including as the QA director for Dole Packaged Foods Company and as head of the microbiology section for the National Food Processors Association, among others. He has also worked as a consulting food scientist and technical director and as an editor for Food Quality & Safety Magazine. He has been on the Editorial Board of Food Safety Magazine since 2023.
Speaking to Rootwurks this week, he described how companies can reduce the threat of foreign object contamination.
“Your maintenance program is Key”
Stier stressed the role of a facility’s maintenance program as a key part of food safety and foreign item contamination prevention.
“I think the greatest way to maintain or keep foreign materials out of a product is the maintenance program. If you’re closely monitoring the equipment, you’ll notice if you’re missing a screw that holds together a cover,” Stier said.
Stier also described the importance of bringing in magnets and X-ray machines to examine production lines when a missing piece of equipment is noticed, to prevent contamination. But he noted that this requires more than just an investment of time and money.
“It depends upon the company's commitment. I know companies who have magnets and X-ray machines working together and don’t have too many foreign material issues.”
He added that there is little a company can do to prevent a disgruntled employee from sabotaging the production line, but if they have access to a metal detector or X-ray machine, they can mitigate the damage.
What an Inspector Sees
Stier disclosed one of his tricks as an auditor - paying a visit at night.
“At night you can see the cleanup process and what happens on the late shift,” he said, adding that there have been occasions when he’s been surprised "by how sloppy operations get at night.”
When exploring whether or not a manufacturing facility may be at risk of foreign item contamination, Stier checks for certain indicators.
“I check if they have a glass and brittle plastic program and if it has been properly updated. I had someone once tell me that their company doesn’t need one because they don’t use glass packaging. But the facility has windows, ceramics, and other items,” Stier said.
He added that he checks if they have metal detectors and magnets and a history of foreign item contamination incidents. He also checks if employee uniforms have pockets above the waist, which he said is a contamination risk.
“It’s about finding anything you can do to minimize the potential for a problem. When you do this it becomes part of your culture.”
The two biggest challenges - Maintenance and Cleaning
Stier said that maintenance and cleaning are the two most complicated safety areas for a plant to manage. For maintenance, he said, “you have things you do every day, every week or every month. Then you have yearly overhauls. There are many different levels of maintenance that a facility must manage."
Most importantly though, the maintenance and cleaning teams have to work together.
“They have to work together in a lot of ways. For instance, the cleaning people will go to tear something down at the end of the day to clean it. If they find a chip on a blade in a chopper or a broken blade, they have to communicate this to the maintenance team.”
There must be clear protocols for responding to a safety incident, and employees of all teams must be empowered to take action for safety.
“If somebody sees something wrong, they should have the authority to close it down or go immediately to a supervisor and say, hey, we have a problem. We have to shut down.”
Stier said this also goes for the Environmental Monitoring team, who should have the knowledge and authority to inform management when they find broken equipment or machinery that could pose a contamination risk.
Stier said that despite the high volume of headlines about food safety recalls and contamination outbreaks, he doesn’t think that the security of the American food supply has worsened over the course of his career. But he does see serious room for improvement.
“I don't think it's gotten worse, but I do think there’s a failure with the basics. A failure with basic things like sanitation, cleaning, and pest management.”
He also believes third-party audits have weakened over the years.
“Too many people are going to checklist audits. They have a “check the box” approach that just checks that they did something, instead of asking if it's effective. Checking if it's effective takes more time and effort.”
