Mycotoxin risk: Half-a-million cans of chocolate spread ordered destroyed in Norway

FSA has imposed Orkla Foods Norway destroying a party with chocolate spread corresponding orders to 13.7 million slices. Now they have appealed the decision.

nugattiThe reason for the decision because the FSA considers importation of the Turkish hazelnut paste in the product illegally imported to Norway.

“The company has imported and put into production, a party with hazelnut paste originating in Turkey, without the shipment has been prepared for public border. It is not given permission to customs clearance, ” writes the FSA in the decision.

Moreover, writes the FSA that the consignment belongs to a group risk products that include special precautionary measures due to potential high mycotoxins.

“The company has for years imported hazelnut paste from Turkey and should be well acquainted with the regulations concerning special protection measures”  it says further in the decision.

– The resolution is made on the basis that we do not properly have notified the party with nuts into the FSA before customs clearance. Nevertheless, the party with nuts released in customs, and thus put into production by us, says communications director Dag Olav workforce VG.

FSA writes in its decision that it considers the infraction as very serious.

Orkla Foods Norway has now appealed the decision to the Food Safety Authority’s headquarters. Meanwhile, the 500,000 Nugatti boxes category Nugatti Max, Nugatti Air, Nugatti Zero and chocolate spread (regular) kept locked up in a warehouse in Lillestrom, something at the factory on Tveita, while some are still at the wholesaler.

Survey of mycotoxins in dates and dried fruits from Tunisian and Spanish markets

In an effort to enforce the knowledge on mycotoxin occurrence and co-occurrence in dates and dried fruits, 228 samples purchased from Tunisian and Spanish markets were subjected to multi-mycotoxin liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of 16 mycotoxins.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAt least one mycotoxin was detected in 160 samples (70%). The frequency of contaminated samples was 83%, 80%, 64%, 59% and 26% for dates, dried vine fruits, figs, apricots and plums, respectively but none of the analyzed samples contained detectable levels of fumonisins (FB1, FB2, FB3) or T-2 toxin (T2).

The incidence and levels of mycotoxins varied in samples. The most prevalent mycotoxin was enniatin B (EnnB) (54%), followed by enniatinA1 (EnnA1) (36%); aflatoxins (AFs) (23%) and ochratoxin A (OTA) (22%). Thirteen samples contained AFs in levels that exceed the maximum limits established in EU legislation. The simultaneous contamination with 2–6 mycotoxins was observed in 51% of the analyzed samples. Lastly, intakes of the detected mycotoxins were calculated for average adult consumers and compared with the tolerable daily intakes (TDI). Data obtained were used to estimate the potential exposure levels.