In this article we welcome guest author and industry expert, Alec Kyriakides, to explore some of the food safety developments, recalls and incidents that have happened recently.

 

Food Safety Developments

 

Festive Food Safety Failures

The Food Standards Agency published some interesting insights into the food safety habits of consumers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, drawn from its Consumer Insights Tracker, a monthly tracker of circa 2100 adults’ behaviours and attitudes in relation to food. The top 12 failures included;

  • Leaving poultry (e.g. turkey) or meat to defrost at room temperature (62%)
  • Eating dairy products (e.g. cream, cheese, or desserts) past use-by dates (51%)
  • Eating smoked fish or cold meats past use-by dates (37%)
  • Leaving food out at room temperature (e.g. for a buffet) for 4+ hours (36%)
  • Not asking guests about allergies and dietary requirements (30%)
  • Letting leftovers to sit for hours at room temperature (16%)
  • Partially cooking food in advance, then leaving it at room temperature before finishing it off later (14%)
  • Not following cooking instructions or checking that the turkey is cooked thoroughly
  • Reusing knives or utensils used for raw meat without cleaning thoroughly them first
  • Not knowing if the fridge is below 5C
  • Keeping Christmas dinner remains for more than two days
  • Putting hot leftovers straight into the fridge without cooling first

 

Dubai-style Chocolate Alerts

The extremely popular confectionary product, Dubai-style chocolate has been associated with a large number of product recalls in 2025 often due to the lack of suitable labelling of the imported product in the country of sale. This has resulted in potential risks for consumers with allergy to unlabelled ingredients, particularly peanuts and sesame. The Food Standards Agency issued updated advice in December to consumers with allergies to avoid purchasing such products and also not to purchase them as gifts for individuals with known allergies. This followed similar advice issued earlier in 2025. In addition to concerns regarding allergen labelling Dubai-style chocolate (and pistachio nuts) was also implicated in an outbreak of salmonellosis reported in Canada affecting 155 people.

 

EU One Health Report

The European Union published the latest official data on foodborne disease outbreaks and contamination of food with microbial pathogens in its zoonoses report for 2024. The top causes of reported zoonoses included campylobacteriosis (168,396 cases, 23.7% hospitalisations, 0.07% case fatality), salmonellosis (79,703 cases, 43.5% hospitalisations, 0.24% case fatality), Shiga toxin- producing Escherichia coli (STEC) (11,738 cases, 35.7% hospitalisations, 0.31% case fatality) and listeriosis (3041 cases, 97.3% hospitalisations, 15.6% case fatality). Campylobacter spp. caused the highest number of reported cases of illness whereas Listeria monocytogenes infection was associated with the highest rate of fatality.

The number of reported cases showed a significant increasing trend in campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, listeriosis and STEC infections over the last 5 years. In a separate publication the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) noted that “changing diets and an ageing population may be contributing to a rise in serious listeria infections across Europe”.

 

Bisphenol A in food contact materials

The European Commission has published a guidance note to provide addition advice on the implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 that bans the use of bisphenol A and restricts other hazardous bisphenols and bisphenol derivatives in certain food contact materials and articles.

 

Impact of solid waste on human health

Although not directly impacting food supply chains, the World Health Organisation has recently published an interesting report on the impact of poorly managed solid waste disposal on human health. The report summarises evidence on “how solid waste, especially municipal solid waste, affects health through polluted air, water, soil and food. When waste is not collected, or is dumped, burned or not poorly treated, it can release hazardous chemicals, contaminate drinking-water sources and create breeding grounds for insects and rodents”.

 

Foodborne disease outbreaks

 

A salmonellosis outbreak implicating the consumption of raw oysters affecting 64 people and resulting in 20 hospitalisations across 22 states is under investigation in the USA. A large outbreak of salmonellosis caused by S. Enteritidis, resulting in 63 cases with 13 hospitalisations was reported in California, USA with the implicated food being raw shell eggs.  The salmonellosis outbreak in Canada reported in November implicating pistachios from Iran and products containing pistachios such as Dubai-style chocolate has now resulted in 155 cases with 24 individuals hospitalised. Two outbreaks of salmonellosis caused by S. Saint-Paul and S. Africana, affecting 55 and 12 individuals, respectively, are under investigation in the USA with the food source currently unknown. Similarly, two outbreaks of salmonellosis of unknown food origin are under investigation in Denmark with the causative strains being S. Typhimurium and S. Strathcona, this latter strain being previously linked to an EU wide outbreak implicating tomatoes. A Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) outbreak implicating pepperoni and bacon pizza snacks caused 23 cases and 5 hospitalisations across 7 provinces and territories of Canada. The number of cases of infant botulism in the previously reported outbreak implicating infant formula milk has now increased to 51, with all cases being hospitalised. An outbreak of campylobacteriosis affecting 2 individuals and implicating the consumption of raw milk was reported in the USA with C. jejuni being isolated from a sample of raw milk from a local dairy. Clostridium perfringens was identified as the cause of an outbreak of illness affecting 43 individuals in Wales, UK after eating a Sunday lunch at a village pub. A norovirus outbreak affecting 594 people was reported in Hungary implicating food served by a catering company to a number of educational establishments.

 

Food Recall Highlights

 

The data used for this food recall highlights review is sourced from open access recall databases covering different countries and continents including the USA (Food & Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture), the UK (Food Standards Agency), Germany (Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety) and Australia (Food Standards Australia New Zealand).

 

Microbiological recalls included a major rodent, bird and insect infestation contamination issue at a USA distributor that resulted in the recall of circa 1000 food, cosmetic and supplements supplied to 54 retail outlets.

 

 

Allergen recalls were once again dominated by multiple allergens with milk driving the single allergen recalls, although peanut contamination was also a significant driver of allergen recalls this month.

 

 

Physical contamination recalls were spread evenly across the four common groups of foreign object contaminants.

 

 

Chemical recalls included a diverse range of contamination events with exceedance of acceptable levels driving the majority e.g. mycotoxins, pesticides, veterinary medicines, etc.

 

  

   

Author

Alec Kyriakides

Independent Food Safety Consultant