H-E-B Inc. posted its recall notice on March 18, but it was not released to the public until Monday, March 21.
In the notice, Food Safety News reports that the company states their product was produced at a co‑packer, and may have been undercooked due to an equipment malfunction, which was uncovered during a routine inspection. In other words, the same old thing Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea are saying in their recall notices.
This leaves me to wonder how many other store brands will be recalled, or at least, checked to see if they need to be recalled. The FDA announcement of the voluntary recall uses the same words as the previous two notices, except the product name and UPC codes are different.
The voluntary H-E-B recall notice affects only these specific products: Hill Country Fare brand 5oz. canned Chunk Light Tuna in Oil, sold at H-E-B Texas stores in single cans between Feb. 24, 2016, and March 16, 2016.
Hill Country Fare Chunk Light Tuna in Oil
UPC code: 0 4122065335 5
Product lot code 6O9FZ SCEES
Best By date (printed on the bottom of the can) is 2/9/19.
Customers who purchased any of the recalled product are asked to return it to the store for a full refund. Customers with any questions or concerns may contact H-E-B Customer Service at 1-855-432-4438 Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm.
The Lyons, Georgia co-packing plant
It was interesting to this writer that very little was said about the company that co-packed all the tuna that ended up being recalled, and how in the world so many companies ended up being involved. Readers were wondering, too, why something like poor sterilization wasn’t caught earlier in the process because it covers two months worth of processing.
A little investigation led Digital Journal to the packing company in Lyons, Georgia. Chicken of the Sea International, a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products (TUF), moved its tuna packing operations in 2009 from American Samoa where the canning was carried out by Samoa Packing. This was done as a cost-saving strategy because most of its market is in the U.S.
The operation involves processing and packaging imported frozen tuna loins into Chicken of the Sea-branded products. TUF completed its move into the Lyons facility in October 2009. So now we know who owns the plant. And seeing as it is one of only two plants of its type in the country, it obviously packs tuna for other food companies.
The Lyons tuna processing facility is one of two facilities in the U.S. that process frozen tuna into ready-to-eat canned goods. And, no, I haven’t figured out where the other facility might be located. Bumble Bee has two processing plants, one in Puerto Rico and another in Southern California, according to the U.S. Department of labor.
