Food Safety Focus (94th Issue, May 2014) – Food Incident Highlight

Glass Fragments in Italian Almond Pastry

On 17 April 2014, the Centre for Food Safety issued a food alert to urge the public not to consume a kind of almond pastry imported from Italy since the product might contain glass fragments. The importer was instructed to stop supply of the affected batch of the product. As a prudent measure, the importer initiated a recall of the product regardless of batches.

From time to time, pre-packaged food products have been found with foreign matters which may have accidentally entered food in any part of the food processing chain. Glass fragments may have entered food as a consequence of glass breakages during packaging or through defective glassware. Food contaminated with glass may cause cuts and physical harm when ingested.

Food manufacturers should adopt good manufacturing practice in order to minimise the chance of glass and other foreign matters entering food. They should exercise care in handling equipment and raw materials, and set up sound monitoring systems to ensure that the food produced is safe for consumption.

The affected Italian almond pastry