New York Style Sausage Co has recalled 4,040lb – just under two tonnes (t) – of meat due to misbranding of the product, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), said on Friday 8 January.
The California-based company is known for its range of fresh Italian sausages and the products containing undeclared sheep casing have been recalled over fears consumption could led to allergic reactions to sheep meat.
Labelling concerns
The detection was made not by the FSIS, USDA or New York Style Sausage Co, but by a member of the public. The USDA said FSIS was notified by a customer last week, who noticed the pork sausages labels did not declare sheep casings on the finished product label.
Sheep casing is a popular and widely-used material to enclose sausage meat.
There have been no confirmed reports of illness linked to the consumption of the product and it has been classed as a low health risk.
Two in a week
But it is the second time in a week that a California sausage company has had products recalled over labelling concerns.
On 7 January, Neto’s Sausage recalled 23 types of beef, pork and chicken products after they were shipped for sale without a food safety inspection.
A company spokesman for Neto’s said they “mistakenly” put food safety labels on their product, without an official food safety inspection.
“The recall is basically about labelling and there is no health risk with our products,” said co-owner Deborah Costa.
She added: “All production and packaging of the product was done under the USDA supervision and in the USDA plant. The USDA plant labelled most of the products – just not all.
“All institutional packages were okay. The only products under question are the small retail packages because the USDA plant did not put labels on all packages inside the cases and our distribution centre mistakenly put labels on them without inspection.”