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

 

Global foodborne disease

The World Health Organisation (WHO) published its latest estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases. The estimates encompassed 42 foodborne hazards including bacteria, bacterial toxins, viruses, protozoa and chemical hazards and the effects were calculated in terms of illnesses, deaths and disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Of the 2.56 billion illnesses caused by these hazards in 2021, 866 million were estimated to be foodborne resulting in 1.52 million foodborne deaths and 57.1 million foodborne DALYs. Diarrhoeal disease hazards caused 666 million illnesses with Campylobacter spp. at the top of the list of bacteria, causing an estimated 148 million cases. Norovirus caused the most viral illnesses with an estimated 54.8 million cases. Parasites (Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Toxoplasma, etc.) were estimated to have caused nearly 300 million illnesses. Of the 6.26 million illnesses estimated to have been caused by chemical hazards, heavy metals predominated (Inorganic arsenic 2.21 million, lead 1.7 million, methylmercury 2.02 million). The data can be viewed interactively for individual countries and over time and the combined dataset has been reviewed in an excellent online article.

 

CODEX Precautionary Allergen Labelling

The CODEX Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL), at its meeting in May, agreed to progress the revision to the General Standard for the Labelling of Pre-packaged Foods (CXS 1-1985)

to include the Annex: guidelines on the use of precautionary allergen labelling to CAC49. This will provide the framework for the implementation of precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) of foods with reference to specific threshold levels of allergens. The thresholds have been set at the ED05 level (eliciting dose 5%) that is the level at which 5% of allergic populations would be predicted to suffer an observable reaction, if they were to consume a food that inadvertently contained that amount in the specified portion. This development is intended to provide food businesses with guidance regarding the application of PAL to foods in order to avoid their overuse. It is designed for situations where allergens are not intended to be present in the food by formulation but where risk assessment has identified a potential risk of inadvertent presence.

 

EU Commission Report on Food Safety Culture

The European Commission has issued a report on the progress being made by EU Member States in relation to food safety culture controls. Challenges identified included the objective assessment of cultural elements in food businesses together with maintenance of uniform control standards. The report goes on to highlight and share examples of how several Member States have responded to these challenges by launching national initiatives to support food businesses in adopting robust food safety cultures and the related official controls.

 

Risk ranking of microbiological hazards in foods

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) published a report from its Scientific Committee ranking seven microbiological hazards in foods. The hazards, ranked in descending order were Campylobacter spp., Norovirus, Listeria monocytogenes, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), Salmonella spp., Hepatitis A virus and Hepatitis E virus. Data gaps identified in conducting the assessment included additional hazards that were not included e.g. Yersinia enterocolitica, Toxoplasma gondii, etc., the theoretical nature of the models used to quantity the burden of disease and the biases involved in the use of expert elicitation when estimating the proportion of disease attributable to the food pathway.

 

Food Defence

The publicly available standard (PAS) 96:2026 Food defence – Protection and prevention from deliberate acts - Guide has been updated. The guide provides food business operators with a systematic approach to the identification of vulnerabilities and the implementation of effective controls to mitigate risks of malicious attacks that could cause contamination, disruption, or financial harm.

 

Fraud

A company in the UK has been fined £500K for misleading customers regarding the nature of meat that it was supplying. The ‘lamb’ product contained predominantly fat, skin, assorted meats and mechanically recovered meat products.  

 

Marine toxins

A review of foodborne disease outbreaks in the USA associated with marine toxins has been published by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Between 2011 – 2023 there were 402 foodborne outbreaks caused by marine toxins resulting in 1280 illnesses, 96 hospitalisations and one death. Scombrotoxin (histamine & biogenic amines) and ciguatoxin accounted for 95% of the outbreaks (192 and 189, respectively). Tuna was the implicated food in 76% of the scombrotoxin outbreaks where food data was available and barracuda, grouper and amberjack accounted for 56% of the ciguatera toxin outbreaks.

 

UK Incident Prevention Report

The UK FSA has issued its latest monthly Incident Prevention Report where it provides a summary of recent incidents, the Rapid Alert for Food and Feed (RASFF) alerts summary, signals and emerging issues and its work on Root Cause Analysis. You can sign up to receive this and other insightful reports here. Some highlights include Salmonella spp. detection in various imported meat products from Poland (chicken mince, chicken wings, turkey drumsticks), Listeria monocytogenes in smoked salmon from France and in a cured beef product and cheese from UK sources plus E. coli contamination in two shellfish beds (mussels, oysters) from UK coastal beds. Pesticide residues and chemical contamination were also reported including chlorate detected in frozen shrimps and catfish from China and Vietnam, perchlorate in seafood from China and unauthorised food colours (E129 Allura Red) in drinks from Jamaica.

 

Top non-conformities

The BRCGS annual report for 2025 / 26 has highlighted the top five non-conformities over the last 12 months from over 35 000 audits across four of their certification programmes. The top five arising from audits to Global Standard Food Safety Issue 9 were Housekeeping and hygiene – maintain clean and hygienic conditions, Equipment – design of equipment, suitable direct contact equipment, Chemical and physical product contamination control – handling and storage of chemicals and Building fabric – walls and Building fabric – doors. The top non-conformities for Issue 3 of the Global Standard for Agents and Brokers, Issue 7 of the Global Standard for Packaging Materials and the Issue 4 of Storage and Distribution are also detailed.

 

Foodborne disease outbreaks

 

The salmonellosis outbreak affecting over 300 inmates at a jail in the USA has implicated a chicken salad meal that tested positive for Salmonella spp. Ten people were hospitalised in the outbreak. The US FDA is also investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections affecting 68 people of a currently unknown food source. The number of cases affected by the outbreak of Salmonella Stanley ST2045 reported last month across a number of EU countries, the UK and the USA has now increased to 83 with a potential link to chicken-flavoured instant noodles and/or processed chicken products. The outbreak caused by Salmonella Bovismobificans, resulting in over 100 cases of illness across the EU and the UK with 18 hospitalised and 1 death, has been attributed to alfalfa sprouts. The outbreak strain was isolated from water used in the production of sprouted seeds in the Netherlands and the UK. A salmonellosis outbreak caused by Salmonella Schleissheim in Slovakia has resulted in seven people ill with several hospitalised. The implicated cheeses were made in an unregistered operation that did not meet hygienic production standards.

 

A multi-year and multi-state outbreak of listeriosis reported by the US FDA affecting 12 people with 10 hospitalised and 1 death, has implicated a soft cheese. Food Standards Scotland issued an incident alert due to contamination of multiple frozen cooked chicken products although no specific illness has been reported. An STEC O157 outbreak in Japan has resulted in five cases and three hospitalised. The implicated food is a wrap made with bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheese in a wheat flour tortilla. An outbreak of botulism has been reported in Paraguay implicating food from a number of restaurants with shredded meat identified as a common food item consumed by two of those affected. One person has died. Following the outbreak of infant botulism implicating powdered infant formula milk affecting 48 babies in 2025, another outbreak has been reported associated with a brand of infant formula from a different source, with three babies affected so far. A campylobacteriosis outbreak implicating unpasteurised milk from two milking operations in Idaho, USA is reported to have caused 60 illnesses with 45 individuals who have tested positive for the disease. Cases of illness caused by Cyclospora spp. in the USA since 1st May 2026 have totalled 145 with 20 people hospitalised. This may represent a number of outbreaks and / or clusters of individual cases but the food or water source have yet to be identified.

 

A number of children in Israel have been hospitalised following the consumption of baby fruit puree. The Ministry of Health has reported the detection of clonazepam and iorazepam, both benzodiazepine medications used to control epileptic seizures and to manage anxiety.

 

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 were driven predominantly by contaminated cheese, in one case related to an ongoing outbreak. Salami and raw, dried meats were responsible for a number of recalls due to the presence of Salmonella spp. and STEC and the infant botulism from formula milk extended to another processor.

 

 

Allergen recalls were lower last month with undeclared milk being the single most common reason for recalls although peanut contamination was also highlighted in 3 recalls..

 

Physical contamination recalls were notable in the context of the lack of glass incidents, with plastic being the main reason for these incidents.

 

Chemical recalls included mycotoxins, veterinary medicines and illegal additives.

 

   

Author

Alec Kyriakides

Independent Food Safety Consultant