FDA Begins HVP Recall

Check your food stores! According to a report issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) there is a problem with HVP which is manufactured by Basic Food Flavors of Nevada. The food recall is voluntary by the manufacturers that use the additive in their processed food products.

Officials believe the public health risk is low, and no one is known to have fallen ill as a result of the contamination. But manufacturers voluntarily recalled 56 products Thursday, and that number is expected to balloon in the coming weeks into what could be one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

"We don't know precisely how large this recall will get," said Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner for food protection at the FDA. "The potential amount of products . . . is very large." - Washington Post

What the hell is HVP you ask? The answer to your question is Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein. Now the question you might be asking yourself is what the hell is HVP used in? It’s used as a flavor enhancer additive similar to MSG in dip mixes, soup mixes, salad dressings, snack mixes, and in pre-packaged meals to name a few. Which then leads us to why is HVP being recalled? The answer to that question is possible salmonella contamination. Finally, you are asking yourself what product brand names did the FDA actually recall? There are 56 items on the list so far, and this is just a short list of the retail brands but you can check the FDA web page for the full list of product brand names by category, description, package size, lot numbers, and UPC numbers.

Johnny's Fine Foods
T. Marzetti
Oak Lake Farms
Great Value
Castella
Hawaiian
Homemade Gourmet
Follow Your Heart
Trader Joe’s

Click here for the MS Excel spread sheet from the FDA

I’m off to get a bite to eat but I’m going to check the FDA recall list first to make sure I don’t get the creeping crud! And I’ll just bookmark the Net Doctor web page in case I know of someone that gets salmonella food poisoning.

Papamoka

Toyota Pulls a Detroit of Yesteryear

Once upon a time not so long ago there was a scary monster that ruled the land by seeding the world with its demonic like fire breathing spawn (cars). They used to call it the Detroit Big Three. Its children would roam the world devouring liquids (GM SUV) at every gas station, rusting (Chrysler) out right before our very eyes, and exploding in flames like a Phoenix (Ford Pinto) when offended by a fender bender. Till one bright and shinny day, a bunch of knights (engineers) from Japan decided that they could rid the world of these monsters by offering a tamed down domesticated version of the DBT from across the big blue sea. All was well with the world. The End… or was it?

Toyota has lost its way when it comes to quality and the only one they have to blame is themselves. It’s easy to be the number one car manufacturer in the world if you ignore your customers and just keep pushing out units as fast as your factories can make them. Toyota basically refused to look in its own rear view mirror. So when did Toyota stop following the “Don’t do what the DBT did” business formula? The answer to that question is simple. When profit was more important than the quality of their product. AKA, if you build it then they will buy it or being number one is systemic with built in arrogance.

"Consideration for customers was lacking in Toyota," Seiji Maehara, Japan's minister in charge of transport, said this week after the government learned that the carmaker had known for months about a problem of squishy brakes on its Prius hybrid.

Yet until the Japanese government pressured them to recall more than 400,000 Priuses and other hybrid models on Tuesday, Toyota executives had insisted that the braking issue was a matter of driver "perception."

In the United States, where years-old problems with a sticking gas pedal led to a suspension in January of the production and sale of eight vehicle models, Toyota had also neglected customer complaints, blamed drivers and was not forthcoming with federal investigators. - Washington Post

Recalling 400,000 cars is a huge admission of a serious quality control problem and that is not the way to keep repeat customers. Numbers of that size recall are nothing new to Toyota but seem to be the status quo. Going back to just August of 2006 it was evident then that Toyota had a quality problem and yet they still pulled a DBT. Has Toyota taken up the old DBT quality standard of built in product obsolescence? Could this quality problem be a precursor as to what will happen to Toyota jobs here in America?

At Toyota's annual executive meeting in June, its outgoing chairman, Hiroshi Okuda, its new chairman, Fujio Cho, and its chief executive, Katsuaki Watanabe, all vowed to the gathered managers that the quality issue would be addressed, according to a senior Toyota executive who attended the meeting.

"The quality issue is a big concern. They're embarrassed about it," said the executive, who insisted on anonymity because the meeting was private. He added, "You think about Toyota, and quality is in our DNA. We are concerned about looking like the rest of the pack. The market is forgiving because of our long reputation, but how long will they be forgiving?" - New York Times

There is a reoccurring pattern when it comes to the blame game at Toyota and that is and has been to blame its engineers. Yes, they do have some ownership but the boys in the executive branch are the ones making the decisions that the customers end up buying and owning. Companies like the “New” Toyota are their own worst enemies when they “choose” to ignore the reason they became successful to begin with. QUALITY!

Click on the link for the full list of the latest Toyota recall. And you can be sure that the insurance industry isn't going to miss a heartbeat raising your rates when it comes to your Toyota car insurance. Poor safety performance on any vehicle is too good of an opportunity for them to miss.

UPDATE 2/15/10: Toyota considers incentives to maintain customer confidence post recall according to CNN Money

Papamoka

***Washington Post has linked to this post... Thank you!

Pet Food that Kills, Recall issued

In pretty much every home in America there is the unspoken family member that we all love and cherrish. Our cat or our dog are family members just as much as Mom or Pop are. Some people such as myself refer to the dog as my baby boy. He’s the first one to greet me and the last one to say good night before he beds down with one of the girls. Kids and pets are sometimes like brothers and sisters, the love is always there.

Could it be possible that I could poison my baby girl with her cat food or my baby boy with his regular dog food? Apparently, that fact is a reality. The Boston Herald has this alert to its readers and I hope they don’t mind to much that I borrowed it to alert my readers as well…

Tainted food eyed in feline’s death

By Peter Reuell/ Metrowest Daily News

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

“Fluffy,” a beloved blue-eyed family cat from Milford, could be the Bay State’s first casualty in a tainted pet-food crisis sweeping the nation.

Some 60 million cans and pouches of a variety of brand name cat and dog foods - possibly containing contaminated wheat gluten - have been recalled after reports of mostly cats perishing from kidney failure.

“What makes me angry is if we had this information a week ago, it would have saved her,” said Denise Tracy of her pet cat she plucked from a free litter more than a decade ago.

“We had to put her down Thursday night,” Tracy said, adding her 16-year-old son held his pet as the fatal shot was humanely administered. “It was very heartbreaking,” said the mother of five. “I’ll never forget the veterinarian’s words: ‘Her heart has stopped.’ ”

Snip

Now Tracy is left to console her son and four other children while trying to warn every pet owner she knows. Even her dog “Rosie,” a Cairn terrier, feels the loss of a playmate.

“I never expected it to be so emotional,” she said last night. “Everybody is upset. It’s been a funeral parlor around here.”

The recall now covers dog food sold throughout North America under 51 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands, including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba. The food was sold under both store and major brand labels at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers. – Boston Herald

Menu Foods Income Fund has a complete list of dog and cat food that has been recalled. Please check your pets food against this list and toss it out if you find it on there. There is nothing worse than losing a pet that you love just as much you would your own children. If it is preventable then I want to get the message out there to save lives.

Pet owners and lovers of dogs and cats please link to this post. The life you save is important in so many ways to you and your family.

Papamoka