Federal health officials are telling consumers, restaurants and grocery stores across the Northeast to throw out any cold smoked sprats sold by D&M Smoked Fish Inc., doing business as Haifa Smoked Fish Inc., after the company refused to pull the product despite a warning that it was made without required safeguards against botulism. The company, based in Jamaica, New York, declined the FDA’s recommendation to recall the item, prompting the agency to go public with its warning instead.
According to Food Safety News, an FDA inspection of the Jamaica facility found that controls were not in place to prevent Clostridium botulinum growth and toxin formation in the sprats. The FDA has recommended D&M Smoked Fish Inc. recall all cold smoked sprats currently on the market, but the firm has declined, the outlet reports. Per the same report, the FDA then issued a public warning about the product because the company refused to recall it.
The warning covers every lot of sprats the company has sold under the Haifa Smoked Fish name, not just a single batch, according to Food Poison Journal. Pictured boxes referenced in that reporting carry a shipping label reading Haifa Smoked Fish, 94-15 150 St., Jamaica, N.Y. 11435, with a product label marked C/Smoked Holland Sprats and showing lot number 261 — but the FDA warning applies to all lots, not just that one. Food Poison Journal reports the sprats were distributed to Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and that the FDA said the product may have reached additional states beyond those four.
Sold Loose, Frozen for Months, Hard to Trace
Part of what makes this warning tricky for shoppers is how the product moves through the supply chain. The sprats are sold in bulk cardboard boxes and shipped refrigerated, and the FDA has said the product may be frozen for up to one year, according to the same FDA information cited by Food Safety News. That means a box sitting in a restaurant or grocery store freezer right now could have arrived long before this week’s warning…