Since receiving the first alert about a possible peanut contamination in mustard. A comprehensive testing programme has been initiated with support from industry accredited laboratory partners: spanning products and premises, as well as an investigation into our supply chains.
This programme included independent analysis and swab-testing programme of our spice production premises in Leicester, the results of which confirmed no presence of peanuts. This peanut and nut-free working environment is in addition regularly and routinely tested to ensure this remains the case.
Rigorous testing conducted on mustard supplied to us from India has indicated few positive but inconsistent traces of peanut residue in limited pockets of the raw mustard product but not across entire batches. This presence of peanuts has been highly intermittent and in isolated pockets, rather than being homologous throughout the batches. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) Incidents and Resilience Unit have received information from its counterparts in India that confirmed the issue originated at agricultural level in India.
The FSA says: “…whilst no Peanut/Groundnut are processed in the unit in India, the product they supply to you does indicate about a possible peanut contamination at the farm level. The Indian authorities in their response to us have equally confirmed this.”
Our supplier from India is a fourth generation and long-term family supplier that had never in the past faced a nut or peanut contamination issue with its raw ingredients. However, as a pro-active measure FGS Ingredients has stopped accepting or ordering any supplies from them, and are sourcing mustard originating from farms in Canada.
In parallel with the testing and investigation programme, we have advised all customers to stop using the Indian-sourced mustard supplied by us and return any unused product. Customers have, in turn, been proactive in notifying about this issue to their customers including the manufacturers of consumer products. This has resulted in numerous updates from the FSA as investigations along the supply chain revealed additional consumer products containing the affected mustard as an ingredient. This has necessitated a growing list of finished products being removed from sale/shelves by their manufacturers to ensure together our absolute priority is protecting consumer health. We wish to assure our customers that the FSA updates reflect the fact that we collectively put consumer safety first by announcing that any mustard products originating from India must not be used and returned to us for safe disposal.
We would like to reiterate that FGS Ingredients does not include any peanut in its spices and no peanuts or tree nuts are allowed in our spice production facility in Leicester. We additionally maintain very stringent working controls to prevent the accidental introduction of allergens, including regular staff hand swabs prior to starting work.
As a family-owned business established almost 75 years ago and now in its third generation of family leadership. We have grown to proudly become the principal supplier of natural spices to food producers across the UK and to businesses internationally. We had never in the past been involved in any incident of food contamination and will continue to prioritise the supply of exceptional quality and safe spices and spice blends to the food industry. Nevertheless, we are also reviewing and updating our food labelling to reflect this safety issue.
FSG Ingredients is continuing to work diligently and closely with both the FSA and Leicester Environmental Health to ensure any product posing even a potential threat to consumer health is swiftly removed from the supply chain.