Food Safety First Is The Order Of The Day

By Ashley Hunter, Senior Vice President & Head of TOMRA Sorting Food

Data revealing aflatoxins to be the biggest cause of foodrelated recalls demonstrates the important role effective sorting and quality analysis systems can play in boosting food safety on the production line.

The first quarter European Recall & Notification Index, produced by Stericycle Expert Solutions, found that aflatoxins – a fungal toxin that contaminates crops - were behind 21 percent of all food recalls, followed by salmonella, pesticides/fungicides, metal fragments, chemicals, listeria, insects and E. Coli.

And despite an overall drop in food recalls on last quarter of 2014, there was a 67 percent increase in recalls relating to nuts, largely as a result of issues with products coming from India and China. Those originating in China spread to 13 countries and were primarily due to aflatoxins