Labelling error sparks recall of Tesco chocolate cake
Tesco’s Finest Chocolate Cake had been packaged mistakenly with the retailer’s carrot cake.
A spokesman said: “We have been made aware by our supplier that due to a manufacturing error that a small number of boxes from one date code have been incorrectly packed with carrot cake.
“The carrot cake contains walnuts and as such will have the incorrect allergen information on the packaging.”
Health risk to consumers
The presence of walnuts in the cake made it a possible health risk to consumers with an allergy to the ingredient.
Tesco’s recall applied to cakes with the best-before date of January 17 2018 and the batch code D32/18003.
A notice of the recall, posted on the Food Standards Agency’s website, advised consumers who had bought the product to not eat it and instead return it to the store it was bought from to receive a full refund.
Undeclared allergens – including mislabelling incidents – and pathogens were a major cause of recalls in the UK, according to a report from Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality.
Product recalls in the UK
The number of food and drink product recalls in the UK had also grown by 62% in 2015/16, driven by the impact of new EU labelling legislation, it claimed.
However, two-in-five food industry employees and executives believed cost-cutting during production was to blame for the increase in the number of recalls, according to research by insurance broker Lockton.
Lockton’s head of product recall Ian Harrison said: “The correlation we’re seeing between increasing pricing pressures within the UK food and beverage sector and the instances of product recalls is one the industry cannot afford to overlook.”
Meanwhile, Scottish meat processor The Farmer’s Son has recalled packs of haggis and black pudding, because of concerns over the company’s hygiene procedures.
