Listeria Recall of Vidalia Onions – Good Use of Safeguards

A farm in Georgia initiated a recall of their Vidalia onions last month.

During routine testing of their Vidalia onions, the farm personnel found one of their packaging lines tested positive for Listeria. Although no actual cases were reported, they issued a recall out of an abundance of caution. See the recall notice here.

This is a great example of how multiple safeguards, and prompt action based on those safeguards, were used correctly by the company. Obviously, we would rather not have any contamination in the first place. However, the quality system they had in place had them do periodic, precautionary checks for contamination. Once a possible contamination situation was identified, they issued a voluntary recall to protect their customers. This is how multiple safeguards should work.

While I don’t have any information on this, I would also hope that they did an in-depth analysis on:

• How the contamination occurred;
• If they could have prevented it;
• If they could have detected it sooner;
• If their corrective actions were effective.

Image source/credit: Image by Suzanne Thiele from Pixabay.

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