Before the holiday buzz, there was a recall of dairy products in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Eighteen people had been sickened with E. Coli, and nine claimed they had drunk the same brand of milk. The Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and several journals linked the potential E-Coli contamination to potentially ineffective pasteurization.

The company acted quickly to recall its products, even though it was debatable if the illnesses were truly linked to pasteurization, as there was no data to prove E. Coli was found.

When you have so many who are sickened by E. Coli and there is a suspect product, it is important that corrective action be taken immediately. However, there was no holding back from the media regarding speculation to the connection between the illnesses and milk without any clear evidence of supportive data. Before I started writing this article, I began by Googling this recall to see if the contamination source had been identified. What I found were government reports, lifestyle magazines to highly regarded international journals and even commentary from vegan sites continuing the narrative, but no verification.

The worst thing in the dairy industry is to fall victim to potentially false narratives.

It is a difficult subject. As a consumer, I want information about my food choices as soon as I check out from the grocery. Whether or not there was true causation, I want to prevent any opportunity to consume pathogens. However, working in the food safety industry, I see the strain of misunderstanding or reaction from the media.

Over two months later, I am still looking for accessible and clear information about what truly happened. This is the challenge with quick or reactive information without a thorough follow up on the situation. Will the public ever know if the recalled dairy products were truly contaminated?

What are the key takeaways for the dairy industry from this experience?

First, the dairy industry should be proud of the fact that it acted voluntarily and quickly to protect the public with an immediate recall, even though the source of contamination had not been verified.

Above all, the dairy industry must continue to be proactive about protecting its image. Through effective quality control programs, including process monitoring with accurate sampling and testing, we can greatly reduce the chances of contamination and continue to produce safe quality dairy products.

More Reading:

Darwin’s Dairy recalls milk and cream products because of a potential breakdown in pasteurisation procedures
https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/alert/fsa-prin-50-2019

Darwin’s Dairy
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/tag/darwins-dairy/

Barnsley dairy recalls products after E. coli outbreak
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-50573268

By Anne Bigalke
VP of International Markets, QualiTru Sampling Systems
anne@qualitru.com   Follow Anne on LinkedIn