A food company prosecuted last month for selling a dip that almost led to the death of a Caerphilly woman has issued a recall of one of its products.
Ebbw Vale-based Zorba Delicacies admitted three food safety charges at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court.
Egg allergy sufferer Hayley Lancaster had an anaphylaxis reaction after buying a contaminated tzatiki dip from Morrisons in Caerphilly in February 2018.
The company was fined £93,000 following an investigation and prosecution by Caerphilly Trading Standards.
The company has now issued a nationwide recall on around 80 types of hummus in a salmonella scare.
Speaking to The Guardian, Tim Keohane, a senior Trading Standards officer at Caerphilly County Borough Council, said the investigation found it had failed to allow enough time for 20-minute deep cleans to take place between making a mint and beetroot dip, which contained eggs, to processing the ‘egg-free’ tzatiki. It also failed to take swabs at the plant or test the final products.
He said: “They introduced what they called enhancements to their allergen management system. Our experts said what they introduced was what they were supposed to be doing in the first place.
“The person we employed to do the audit was quite shocked about the way they were operating at the time and they were in breach of their own procedures in relation to allergen management.”
Zorba insisted the egg allergen problem was not linked to the current salmonella scare. A spokesman said the fine “relates to an incident in February 2018 and the two issues are completely unconnected”.
The company has blamed the recent salmonella contamination on an ingredient supplied by a third party.