This is so, so scary. It's getting bigger, just as we feared.
I'd like to tease things out. It seems to me that there are three US suppliers of the cumin. I think Adams and Schiff are separate. I could be wrong about that, though.
Schiff Foods
Schiff Foods Products Co., Inc.
994 Riverview Drive
Totowa, NJ 07512
Phone # (973) 237-1990
Fax # (973) 237-1999
Email: Sales@schifffood.com
Adams Extract
Adams Extract & Spice LLCDirections
Address: 3217 Johnson Road, Gonzales, TX 78629
Phone:(830) 672-1850 (512) 359-3035
Con Yeager Spice Company
144 Magill Rd
Zelienople, PA 16063
(800) 222-2460
For a full listing of Con Yeager products affected, including some which have individual threads here, see the exhaustive table on the FDA website: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm429688.htm
Adams hasn't named their third-party supplier/wholesaler.
Con Yeager has-- it's Golombeck.
I'm guessing that Golombeck and Schiff are at roughly the same level on the supply chain-- so that probably means an imported primary supplier behind both.
I would love to believe that this is a single unscrupulous Latin American (probably) supplier of cumin who is "cutting" the product-- in the same exact way that melamine was used as an 'additive/filler' a few years ago in China.
Because the alternative is that it's common practice from a supply region. {shudders}
Just using what was written as reference because it gave me enough to go on.
Golombeck is a wholesaler importer of record. A lot of companies who use product do not want to enter it themselves. They don't have the in country ties, the freight forwarder relationships, don't want to deal with supply chain, don't want to deal with the entry paperwork or the risk of having product on hold, fines, you name it. Here's where your Golombeck or other trading company comes in. For spices they aren't really bulky compared to say television because the product has more of a dimensional weight than per unit. Likely that means LCL (less than container load) puzzled together with other items.
I've personally only ever entered non-food products like aluminum frames, steel, and LCL grab bags of oriental trading like goods. However the Harmonzied Tariff Schedule is very specific about subtypes requiring the application of essential characteristics. See below.
0909 Seeds of anise, badian, fennel, coriander, cumin or caraway; juniper berries:
0909.21.0000 Seeds of coriander:
0909.21.0000 Neither crushed nor ground
0909.22.0000 Crushed or ground
0909.31.0000 Seeds of cumin:
0909.31.0000 Neither crushed nor ground
0909.32.0000 Crushed or ground
0909.61.0000 Seeds of anise, badian, caraway or fennel; juniper berries:
0909.61.0000 Neither crushed nor ground
0909.62.0000 Crushed or ground
I'm betting one of these two:
0909.31.0000 Seeds of cumin:
0909.31.0000 Neither crushed nor ground
0909.32.0000 Crushed or ground
For example here's a bill of lading for Golombeck. This is all open source information.
Sample Shipment Record
AL MEHTAB TRADING CO LLC
P O BOX 6354, DUBAI, UAE TEL 971 4 2262145 FAX 2263369
sells to
MORRIS J GOLOMBECK INC
960 FRANKLIN AVE, BROOKLYN NY 11225U S A TEL 707963 551 FAX 707 963 1270
Arrival Date: 2008-01-18
Number of Containers: 1
Gross Weight: 24970 KG
Quantity: 454 PKG
Product Description: CUMIN SEEDS
They're not going to have a sole relationship with only one export supplier so even though you can see in 2008 Golombeck entered a shipment from UAE trading company that doesn't tell us much then nor now. I didn't see the country of origin on there I don't even know if it was sourced UAE. That's just the trading company exporter.
The point is no one is going to know if what they have is tainted because Golombeck isn't the supplier in the sense that he's the importer of record, unless the company further refines the product itself but there's equal chance they never see or handle the product they just handles shipment and entry then forwards.
A recall this size must be colossal in terms for cost so that leads us to a good number of smart W questions.
Why was
peanut suspected? Routine testing or other?
Who uncovered the contact? Reports all say no reported illnesses. Are we sure? Then who thought it had to be peanut, and then confirmed it through testing?
When in the supply chain did this happen?
Where in the supply chain did this happen?
What does this recall mean? Considering the cost it had to be gross amounts at the least.
If this was an issue
within US manufacturing once the spices officially entered US commerce by the importer of record and out of that importers hands, then there's some hope of tracing. A lot of ports of entry aren't even owned and operated by the US but under foreign owneship. Last I was in the field it was Dubai/UAE was in the market to buy and operate quite a few US terminals. So, you're not going to find out much at the terminal (like if it was stored next to peanut), or from the freight forwarder who may have 'puzzled' it in to fit a few LCL shipments together in one container.
If this happened pre-import, pre-terminal storage or transfer, pre-container load then all bets are off. The most valuable tool they could give to us now is to give transparency on how it was determined, when, and by whom that peanut was present and what amount. The hot potato of sourcing goes to a place we might not ever find despite knowing the exporter, importer and country of origin that appears on the paper. It could have been an over the border transshipment that while not allowed, does happen often enough for a number of reasons.
Say it is Schiff that has a product that does not specify another country of origin on its label. By law if a product undergoes a category shift that is not mere assembly it can then be considered a product of USA origin. I'm not sure what grinding would constitute in this case (as stated didn't work with food don't have regs in front of me) but a ground spice mix like Ortega taco seasoning may have had cumin seeds that entered whole then were ground and added to other ground spices and other ingredients to make the taco seasoning. Parts of foreign origin undergoing category change = new product with new country of origin.