Faulty FDA Test Prompted Sargento Recall

Dairy Foods, Oct, 2001

MILWAUKEE-In late July, Sargento Foods Inc. voluntarily recalled 108,000 lbs of shredded mozzarella thinking the product might have been contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. According to a recent report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that recall was brought about due to an erroneous government bacteria test.

"It does cause us to have to work a little harder to regain people's trust," Sargento spokeswoman Barbara Gannon said recently. "We're hoping we haven't lost many customers," she said.

As a result, Sargento, which had never before done a major recall, has lost a six-figure amount and is now trying to repair the damage to its reputation. The company doesn't expect to recover the money. And the company announced at the end of August that FDA had notified it of the mistake.

The cheese had been tested by FDA as part of a series of random checks. Meanwhile, Sargento was conducting its own tests on the cheese. None of those tests indicated that listeria was present. The state Department of Agriculture

also conducted tests that didn't find listeria, and no problems could be found at Sargento's production plants in Plymouth, Hilbert and Kiel. The FDA then retested its samples, and discovered the error.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in children, frail senior citizens and those with weak immune systems.

A letter of apology from the FDA was reportedly sent to Sargento's CEO. The FDA is reviewing its testing procedures to try to determine how the mistake occurred, agency spokesman Brad Stone said.

"I can't say it's never happened before," Stone said. "But I don't know if it's ever happened to this degree. Obviously, in the future, we want to prevent ourselves from being in this position," he said.

For Sargento, the FDA's mistake already has taken its toll, reportedly at more than $100,000.

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