After we reported the news of Ranch Foods Direct’s recall, we chatted with company spokesman Eryn Taylor, who sent the Report this statement:
“Good Food Concepts, LLC (Ranch Foods Direct) is voluntarily recalling a limited number of products processed between October 16, 2014 and October 16, 2015. These products have labels with incomplete ingredient information. There have been no reports of illness or other adverse consequences in connection with these products.
” A routine Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) audit found that the product labels did not include sodium nitrite, a preservative commonly used in smoked and processed products. This recall applies to less than 13,000 pounds of product.
“Good Food Concepts will accept any unused products on the recall list (attached) for a full refund. Corrective action is underway, and the company is contacting all wholesale customers that have purchased these products in the past year.
“Good Food Concepts processing operations have been performed under the supervision of knowledgeable USDA inspectors. Good Food Concepts makes every effort to abide by the regulations of CFR Title 9, which governs the USDA inspection process.”
Owner Mike Callicrate followed up with a second statement earlier today:
“The recent federal recall notice is strictly a labeling problem, not a product safety issue. All of the food items for sale in our store have been produced in the same way we have always produced them, using the same high quality, safe, chemical-free production methods. …
“There is a reference to sodium nitrite in the recall notice,” he says. “I want to emphasize that we don’t add any artificial chemicals to anything we sell. Sodium nitrites occur naturally as part of the meat curing process, which means small amounts are normally present in smoked and cured products. Small amounts of nitrite are not unhealthy. In fact, they serve as a necessary preservative that actually kills harmful bacteria.”
In a separate interview with the Indy, Callicrate says, “Never in 15 years have we sold an unsafe pound of beef,” telling writer Matthew Schniper he feels a little picked on by the federal government.
“I have to admit, we’ve missed some packaging requirements and there should have been a label where there wasn’t one,”Callicrate says. “People make mistakes, but it is B.S. to have a Class I recall: That’s for E. coli and listeria and stuff.”
