From Recalls to Red Dye: Navigating Food Safety

Good evening, fellow food safetyists, and welcome to this, episode 3 of the food safetyist podcast. In this episode, I’m gonna be talking, going over some of the recalls, that have been sent out from Behzans, food standards, Australian, New Zealand. Where’s my other tab? Some updates that are going on. Talk about the red food dye, ban in the US, and anything else that tickles my fancy. So without further ado, let’s get on with the show. Now, a bit later, I might have some funky music to go into this bit. But, anyway, at the moment, I’ll just get a kick a ride off, Recalls of the past week, there was one that came out 29th January.

Rex Imports Australia’s Cape Herb and Spice Grinders in various weights. They’re sold in, at independent retailers including IGAs in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria and WA. The, it what does it just sent the date markings, couple of different products, but your best bet head over there, to Fizans or, for the recalls. I will include a link to this in the show notes. But the problem with that one is, potential presence of foreign matter, which they say is plastic. The other one that came out at the end of January is the little Johnny and Katerina’s pizza and gourmet food, margarita and prosciutto pizza, 12 inch.

They are available at tip top stores in Victoria, and it only applies to the margarita pizza 12 inch that has a best before date of 30th December 2024, and the 3rd February 2025. And the prosciutto pizza 12 inch best before 31 December 2024, and 3rd February 2025. It does contain an undeclared allergens, which is soy, sulfides, and cashews. So, thankfully, they’re the only 2 that have, popped out in the last week. The other thing that I wanna talk about, there was a new notification circular published on the 30th January. This is number 327 dash 25. What is that? That is talking about, the work plan and how they, you know, like I said, it got free view, a community consultation on, novel products, etcetera, etcetera.

But you can check out them, by heading on over to obviously food standards dotgov.au, the website and going on from there. Now the next bit that I’d like to talk about is the interesting bit, that I think, you know, it is something that that should be relevant to everyone. Now what has happened is, 15th January, the FDA, revoked the authorization for food dyeing coloring red number 3. This is, so the FDA did it after reviewing evidence that indicated it caused cancer in rats. According to this, the article in the age, US food manufacturers happened to January 15, 2027 to remove the dyes from any existing food formulas.

Now they’ve given people organizations 2 years to get rid of it. So is it something that’s as bad as they say it is, or are we just looking at, you know, something that’s, you know, what do we say? Is it a bit of a distraction? Sorry about that, fellow food safety. It’s, it’s one of those little army days here in, good old Melbourne, and the room that I’m recording this podcast in doesn’t have a lot of air flowing through it, nor does it have any decent air conditioning. So I thought I’d put a fan on. And I’ve only just realized that the fan was blowing under the microphone, so I was sounding a bit funny. I have moved the fan a little bit.

Hopefully, it can keep me cool. But anyway so, yeah, that’s all it is. Too much information. You know, I just wanna show everyone that, hey. This is is this is it as it is. And it’s not gonna be a, you know, a glossy production or anything like that. It’s just the the harsh reality. Anyway, getting back on to other things. The age article that I’m referencing is titled a red food dye was just banned in the US. Do we need to be worried about it? Now this was published on January 27 at 5 AM. And it goes on. As I said, red dye number 3 was, reviewing evidence that indicated it caused cancer in rats. Now US food manufacturers have until 15th January 20 27, to remove it.

Now the article says, so why is this common dye under the microscope? And is it something Australians should be worried about? And why was it banned in the US? The FDA banned blah blah after reviewing studies that linked high doses of a dye to cancer in male lab rats. The review was triggered by a 2022 petition filed by several public interest groups, which called for the regulator to revoke its authorization of the dye. Main food affected are lollies, cakes, food, frozen desserts, frostings, icings, and some pharmaceutical drugs.

However, the FDA noted that the way red food dyeing red dye red number 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans because of biological differences. Now this brings up the interesting question. Why do things have to be tested on animals if there’s biological differences? But you know what? We’ll leave that one for a discussion on another day. The article waffles on a little bit about something. The International Association of Colour Manufacturers argues that the dye is safe in levels to be consumed by humans, is abandoned in Australia. Red dye number 3 has been heavily restricted in foods in Australia, New Zealand, and the EU for decades.

For that, according to Fazan’s spokesman, preservatives, served cherries, and icings or frostings are the only foods that still contain red number 3. The former can contain up to 200 milligrams a kilo, and the latter 2 milligrams a kilo. The risk is low because no one eats many preserved cherries. Blah blah. Waffle waffle waffle. Now, you know, this is the thing. I I think that we should be asking ourselves and everyone. First of all, why do we need artificial colors in foods? And then why do we need artificial flavorings in foods? You know, you have a look in, the products that are available on the shelves these days. There’s so many different additives. And I mean, in fact, if you have a look at the food additives list that’s published by Fazance.

It’s a numerical correction. I’m looking at the alphabetical one. So it is 7 pages Starts all the way at, Acacia gum or Acacia Acacia or gum Arabic, which is number 414. And then goes all the way through to yeast mannoproteins, which is 455. Interesting. But 400. Anyway, so you know, there’s there’s a’s, there’s b’s, c’s, etcetera, etcetera. But the food numbers start at there’s 3 that don’t have a number, but then it starts at 100 and goes all the way up to 1522 1522. Now not saying that there is, 1400 food additives because I’ve missed the 1300 altogether. But, you know, there’s still a lot of additives in the food.

You know, one in particular that I think is interesting, you know, there’s a lot of ammoniums, spartane, beeswax, butane. There he is. Chlorophyll, all that sort of stuff. Carmine, and carmic acid, which is 120, that’s a red, food coloring, from beetles. There’s all sorts of things. I mean, turmeric is classed as a 100. And there’s what else are we looking at? Gold? Had to do number 175. I mean, why are we eating gold? What else is there? Different types of magnesiums. Methyl ethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, MSG, monosodium glutamate, 621, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, all that sort of stuff. So, I mean, it’s something that I think that we, you know, as, you know, food safety professionals, then we should be looking at the additives that go in food.

I think that we should be getting away from all this stuff in food. I mean, Aircomodium citrate. I don’t know what that one is. Fast green. Number 1 fourth, 1 fourth 3. So yeah. We need to, you know, beeswax. You know, actually, I’ll I’ll read it. Where’s the Fizzan’s website? We’ll talk about that one. There we go. Additives in food. What are food additives used for? Food additives can be used to improve the taste or appearance of a processed food. For example, beeswax glazing agents, which is 901, may be used to coat apples to improve their appearance. Now this is why so, you know, so much food gets wasted and so much produce doesn’t make it off the farm because the buyers have decided that, you know, we, the consumer, want our food to look a particular way. And if it doesn’t look a particular way, then we’re not gonna buy it, which has, you know, or worse, is trying to to capitalize on by with a what is it, their ugly food range and things like that. So, I mean, I I think as consumers, and this is, you know, just just me as a consumer here, not a a food safety professional or anything like that, We need to start accepting the products the way that they are. And if we turned around and said, you know what?

My apple doesn’t have to be perfectly green, or my carrots don’t have to be perfectly straight or whatever, then there will be less food wastage. There will be, you know, more fruit and veggies available, and there’s a good chance that it actually may see, prices fall, which, you know what? The, the majors won’t like that because they like their little bit of, profiteering from food prices by doing what they can to, shaft the produce grower. But, you know, it’s the thing is that we, as consumers, need to be turning and saying, well, you know what? We accept that food is not perfect. It is not some perfectly green thing or perfectly red thing or perfectly orange thing.

And, you know, we we accept that food, food that is grown is not going to look perfect all the time. But you know what? There’s it is still nutritionally sound. There’s nothing wrong with it. There is no, danger to it from a, you know, a food safety perspective. So, you know, we should be able to we should be able to eat it, should be able to buy it. And I I you know, I’d like to see consumers turning around and saying, no. That’s enough. We’re not we don’t want this crap in our foods, and a lot of it is crap. You know, a lot of things. I mean, what are we looking? Brilliant brilliant blue, which is another food coloring.

Fast screen, I’ve gone through that one. You know, it’s it’s stuff. And do we do we really need it? And, you know, just because a group of of bureaucrats have decided that, you know what? No. It doesn’t pose a risk somewhere or it, you know, in the small quantities that we’ll be consuming it, it won’t pose a risk. Well, you know, does that justify saying that it is safe to, you know, safe for consumption? I mean, okay. Let’s ask yourself. I mean, would you have a little bit of arsenic every day knowing that you know what? The the little bit that you have a day isn’t likely to kill you, and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, it it’s I think it’s something that we need to seriously think about. I mean, have a look at that. 1 7 one’s titanium. 1 7 2’s iron oxide. 1 7 3’s aluminium.

174 is silver. 1 175 is gold. You know, Yeah. It’s it’s one of those things. We need to we need to turn around and say that enough is enough. Say it. But, anyway, not gonna get on that. So folks, but it is I I think that, we do need to be aware of it. We do need to decide to say that, hey. You know, maybe it’s a point of that we don’t need it. So going back to this age article, talks about a 120, which is an quite and quite natural additive made from the cock anneal beetle. If something comes from beetle, is it natural? Because it still has to be processed before it can be added to the food.

You could say the same thing. Oh, but but what about, different, you know, beet root, paprika, and all those colorings? Well, you know what? I think that there’s a greater argument to be made that they’re more of a natural color than what red e 120 is. But, hey, you know, that’s up to you. You know, yeah, it’s one of those things. This has been a bit of a ranty episode, and I really didn’t intend it to be, but I think we we need to be having these discussions. You know, consuming artificial colors and sweeteners and flavorings cannot be doing us long term good. Doesn’t matter whether you’re an adult or child or whatever it is. I mean, you know, we’ve all heard the jokes or or, you know, made comments about keeping kids off the red cordial after a particular, you know, time of night or day or whatever it is, and all that. So, yeah, I’m, yeah, more of a of a supporter of, you know, Whole Foods rather than, the commercially aesthetic pleasing ones. I think that they do leave a lot to be desired. And then, as I said, we, the consumer, need to be turning around and saying, hey. You know what?

We we we want our apples lumpy. We want our apples to be different colors, and all that sort of stuff. So, but anyway, I might get this ranty one. Yeah. I I don’t know where to go through go to after this. Sort of headed down a path that I wasn’t planning on, but you know what? I went down there anyway. So I might just leave this one as a standalone article. I will include the links to, you know, the the articles that are referenced in the show notes. Someone behind a paywall, like, there’s a a Herald Sun article, so it’s likely behind a paywall. The age one is likely behind a paywall as well. If you got a subscription to it, then that’s good. If you don’t, you may be able to find someone, you know, copy somewhere else. But, yeah, all the the FDA constituent update.

I’ll include that, and, here we’ll see. Here we go. Anyway, I might leave it at this one now. So, yeah, thanks for tuning in, and look forward to having you in my next one. Okay. Till then. Bye for now.