Sargento Foods Inc. said yesterday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has informed them that it made an error in the laboratory finding that led to Sargento issuing a voluntary cheese recall on July 27.
“Following FDA’s review of our supporting laboratory records for this sample and additional testing, we have determined that our initial finding of Listeria monocytogenes was incorrect,” stated Gary L. Pierce, Regional Food & Drug Director of the FDA in Dallas, in a letter to Sargento dated August 24.
Go deeper with GlobalData
“All of the date coded products in question have been totally cleared — no danger to public health ever existed,” said Louis P. Gentine, chairman and CEO of Sargento Foods Inc. “The new information from the FDA confirms what we at Sargento believed all along, since no Listeria was found in any sample tested by two independent testing laboratories, including the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.”
In its 48-year history, Sargento Foods has not experienced any confirmed cases of Listeria among its products in the marketplace. More information is available on the Sargento web site www.sargento.com or consumers may call 1-800-CHEESES between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Central Time Monday through Friday.
- B-roll
- Shots of packaged shredded cheeses
- Shots of people engaging in good manufacturing practices as “defense against harmful bacteria.”
