104 | Massive blindspot causes a huge gluten-contamination recall

Plus Codex HACCP's new decision tree and the intricate art of Japanese sweets

Sep 04, 2023

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Save the date: Online meetup, 14th Sept
Massive blind spot leads to huge soy recall
A new CCP decision tree from Codex
How beautiful Japanese sweets are made (just for fun)
Food fraud news and incidents

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Hello, Happy Monday!

I was shocked to discover the probable cause of Cargill’s massive recall/withdrawal of not-gluten-free soy flour this week, the result of a concerning blind spot in ag systems. More on that below.

Also this week, an intro to the new Codex CCP decision tree - it’s been a long time coming!

As always there’s food safety and food fraud news from around the globe, including the story of a woman who ended up with an 8 cm long roundworm growing in her brain after she ate contaminated greens 😮

Karen

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Save the date: Meetup

Meet other food professionals (and curious consumers) at this informal online get-together.

Wrong time of day for you? Our November meet-up, is at 1 pm US Pacific Time and 8 am Sydney time.

Learn more about the meet-up

Massive blind spot revealed by freedom of information request (soy recall)

Remember the not-exactly-gluten-free Cargill soy flour recall of March this year?

Cargill initiated a recall/withdrawal of soy flour and textured soy flour products after food manufacturers found it contained gluten. Cargill also removed gluten-free claims from soy products processed at a facility in Iowa (USA) at the same time.

The products, which were not sold to consumers were withdrawn from supply chains across the globe, including North America, Central America and the United Kingdom, after Cargill admitted they may contain gluten above 20 ppm, despite being marketed with gluten-free claims. More than 50 million pounds of products were affected.

Freedom of information requests have since revealed an unexpected source for the gluten. It wasn’t cross-contamination during grinding, packing or transport. It was, instead, believed to be the result of agricultural co-mingling with rye.

Rye and wheat are common cover crops in Iowa. The affected soy was processed in a facility in Iowa.

Soybeans planted without a rye cover crop (left) with a significant number of waterhemp weeds between the rows, compared to the soybean crop on the right, which was planted green into a ‘terminated’ rye cover crop. Credit: Iowa State University

What is a rye cover crop?

Rye cover crops are grown over winter between crops of soy or corn. The rye is either ‘terminated’ prior to planting or sowing the soy, or it can be allowed to keep growing for a short time, to protect the young soy plants.

Cover crops reduce weed growth in the fields over winter, preserve moisture and improve soil health and soil nutrients.

Soy farmers aim to kill cover crop plants before their seeds become viable because viable seeds cause unwanted plants to appear in subsequent crops. However, in farming, things don’t always go to plan. Weather conditions or lack of available equipment can prevent farmers from terminating cover crops at the right time.

Gluten blind-spot

Cargill reportedly learned about gluten-containing cover crops being used in soybean farming only during their root cause investigation for the recall.

From a food safety perspective, this looks like a massive blind spot.

Records from the Iowa facility did not show that rye or wheat was present in the incoming soybeans, according to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grading standards.

Why wasn’t this on the radar?

“Was Cargill testing for gluten or were they assuming that soy is naturally gluten-free and doesn’t require testing?” Gluten Free Watchdog

Cover crops are being used more widely today than in the past. In 2019, farmers in Iowa planted 36% more land with cover crops than was planted in 2017.

Since most cover crops are terminated before they can set viable seeds, the risks of contamination might have been judged to be low. Or perhaps no one in soy production realised that traces of gluten-containing cereals would be a problem for soy ingredient makers like Cargill.

In addition, because rye grains (seeds) are significantly smaller than soybeans, it might have been assumed that any inadvertent rye contamination would be removed during screening and cleaning processes.

Gluten Free Watchdog, the organisation that initiated the freedom of information requests, asks “Was Cargill testing for gluten or were they assuming that soy is naturally gluten-free and doesn’t require testing?” Good question!

Rye grains (seeds) are smaller than soy beans. Image credit (rye): California Small Grain Production

In short: 🍏 Soy flour from a facility in Iowa (USA) was recalled after users found it contained gluten 🍏 Soy beans processed at the facility are thought to have been affected by agricultural co-mingling with rye 🍏 Rye and wheat plants are used as cover crops for soy in Iowa, with the number of acres increasing over recent years 🍏 Rye and wheat seeds contain gluten 🍏 Gluten-free claims have been removed from soy products from that facility 🍏

Watch a farmer plant soy into a standing rye cover crop here

New CCP decision tree (finally!) from Codex

There was great fanfare in November last year from the Codex Alimentarius Commission about the creation of a decision tree for HACCP.

Like all food safety nerds, I got excited. Only problem was, it hadn’t actually been published at the time of the announcement.

Finally, it’s available.

The Codex HACCP decision tree has been published as an Annex to General Principles of Food Hygiene

The decision tree is a tool to help food safety teams figure out which points in their food processing/handling operations are critical control points (CCPs). The tree consists of four questions and can be used at each point in the operation where a food safety hazard has been identified.

How is this different?

Past versions of the HACCP Codex document didn’t have a decision tree, despite recommending that decision trees be used to determine whether a process step is a critical control point or not.

The new decision tree fills that gap.

Other changes to the ‘HACCP book’, General Principles of Food Hygiene, include moving the HACCP system from an annex to the main body of the document and providing additional clarification about the relationship between good hygiene practices (GHP) and HACCP principles.

The new version of General Principles of Food Hygiene also has a modern layout which enhances readability and makes it easier for users to locate information.

Need an Intro to HACCP? Watch a replay of my 1 hour online training session: