Organic food increasingly called back

Alnatura and Rapunzel recall organic foods

01/30/2015

A few months ago, the organic food trader Alnatura recalled a four-grain porridge for babies and toddlers and a short time later a millet porridge with rice for traces of tropane alkaloids. Now, a sesame nut (Tahin) is affected by salmonella. Initially, the recall only complied with Tahin glasses with a specific best-before date. Meanwhile, Alnatura has precautionary excluded all batches of the product from sale. Salmonella has also recently been discovered in a glass of Sesammus from Rapunzel Naturkost. The product was also recalled. The causes of food contamination are still unclear.

Organic foods have no higher risk of contamination
Like the online edition of „New Osnabrück newspaper“ Customers would also notice that Alnatura's food recalls have piled up in recent months. „Dear Alnatura team, Unfortunately, the recall campaigns have been heaped up with you lately ... what can this be? "A customer wrote in a comment Whether the organic food dealer must fear an image damage from the contaminated food remains to be seen.

„This is a very stupid coincidence, "said Alnatura press spokeswoman Stefanie Neumann told the newspaper that there was no factual connection between the cases. „Basically, it's more a sign of quality when Alnatura recalls products.“ Also Jürgen Thier-Kundke from the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) gives the all-clear to the newspaper: „It may be that producers with a higher recall rate are more likely to control more often or better. "It is a widespread misconception that organic products are fundamentally healthier than conventionally grown and produced foods, and that only certain rules on production apply to organic foods But every food manufacturer is obliged to manufacture his products safely. „And mistakes can happen to anyone. "

Source of salmonella in organic foods of Alnatura still unclear
As the Alnatura spokeswoman reports, the cause of the salmonella in the Tahin glass is still unclear. One supposition concerns the feces of free-flying birds in the field. Since the sesame but several times during its production is heated to over 90 degrees Celsius, all germs would have been killed. „Our quality management is working hard with laboratories and the authorities to find the cause. "

Salmonella has also recently been discovered in the sesaurus of Rapunzel Naturkost. Again, the product was recalled. „We would like to ask you, if you have Tahin (brown) at home, to give it back to your local organic retailer“, the company writes on its website. „We initiate various measures to ensure even greater process reliability. Every single process stage from the raw material to the final product is analytically monitored in the upcoming test productions, so every conceivable source of entry can be excluded.“ They wanted to do everything possible to identify the source of Salmonella as quickly as possible.

Nobody can say with certainty why a shortage of salmonella has come from two organic food manufacturers. „Suppliers in the organic food market are limited“, speculates Rapunzel spokeswoman Gila Kriegisch to the newspaper.

Joyce Moewius from the German Confederation of Organic Food emphasizes that organic products do not increase the risk of contamination and errors in the production process. „If salmonella is present in products such as Tahin's most recently, it is independent of organic products, "she says, which could affect other products as well.

Salmonella can cause gastrointestinal disorders. The symptoms usually start suddenly with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headache.

Cereals can be contaminated by natural plant substances
In the case of the tropane alkaloids, which were detected last year in two breeds of Alnatura, the situation is somewhat different, since according to BfR it is around „natural ingredients of certain plants, such as belladonna, which can affect the central nervous system and heart rate at low doses, and when so contaminated, the food that is made from them may also contain tropane alkaloids. „These substances have always existed in cereals, but now we can prove them, "says Neumann, saying that in the future, farmers will be better trained.

Picture: Gabi Eder