A, has agreed to a partial recall of six production lots of its processed egg products in response to a request last week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service.The family-owned business had initially declined to comply with the FSIS request last week, prompting that agency to issue a public health alert to remove Nutriom products from commerce.
The company released a statement on Saturday noting that, while products from the six lots were tested at a FSIS-approved laboratory and found to be safe, Nutriom owners determined that a technical, non-food safety related error occurred.
“Based upon our research, we concluded that there is no scientific or legal basis for us to further expand the recall beyond these six lots,” the statement reads, adding, “We presented FSIS with substantial supporting information on our production practices, including a series of laboratory test results from both private and federal government laboratories confirming microbiological safety. For reasons that remain unclear to us, these arguments were rejected by FSIS.”
The company first voluntarily recalled some product in February after an alleged discrepancy in laboratory results was discovered. Then, last week, FSIS requested that the company include additional products in the recall.
“Because the product was not produced in accordance with FSIS requirements, it is unfit for human consumption,” the agency stated.
According to the company’s March 29 statement, “The request was based upon irregularities in recordkeeping that were the responsibility of an individual no longer employed by the company. There were no suggestions of any food safety problems associated with the product, but we decided to fully cooperate with the agency.”
The statement continues, “It is important to emphasize that Nutriom has never encountered even a suggestion of any injury or illnesses associated with consumption of its products. FSIS inspectors had a continuous presence during production since the company’s founding. Nutriom believes it would be doing a disservice to its customers to recall and destroy wholesome egg products under these circumstances.”
Nutriom developed and has a patent pending on a new drying technology for dehydrating eggs. The pure-egg product, which contains no added chemicals or preservatives, is said to function and taste like fresh eggs when it is mixed with water and cooked.
The U.S. military is reportedly one of Nutriom’s largest customers, along with others working in remote locations where space, weight and refrigeration are issues.
A list of all recalled Nutriom products can be found here.
FSIS inspects egg products under the Egg Products Inspection Act. FDA typically takes jurisdiction of egg products after they leave the egg facility if they are incorporated into FDA-regulated products. In this case, USDA handled the original recall rather than FDA because the products are in consumer packages with an identifiable USDA Mark of Inspection, and FSIS had jurisdiction over the product when the contamination occurred.
