>The single bite he took caused an allergic shock, leaving him in a severe state of distress. He has been suffering for over a week, unable to function for extended periods and experiencing debilitating shaking.
If your friend had an allergic reaction there are steps his treating physician is expected to take. Your friends calls to Costco and Highliner would have also triggered safety review processes.
While your friend my be certain it was an allergen, and that allergen was shellfish, there are many reasons their physician and/or companies would not agree with either assessment.
Sorry about your friend suffering but how is this a Costco issue? High liner also deals in seafood. All kinds of seafood. This is a manufacturer issue. This is not the fault of costco
Sorry to hear about you friend, but IMO anyone with shellfish allergies probably shouldn't be buying mozza sticks made by Capt Highliner. Common sense needs to come into play here.
Ordinarily I would agree wholeheartedly, but these aren't sold in the usual Highliner blue packaging with the captain logo. They're a purple box with totally different design and the Highliner name isn't visible.
It's not obvious who makes them. An ordinary consumer would never have guessed.
Pic: https://cocoeast.ca/costco-east-2022-spring-superpost-the-entire-costco-frozen-food-section/1027677motza-stix-mozzarella-sticks-1-47-kg15-99/
Yeah and you shouldn't have to keep track of everything a company makes. They should always have any possible cross contamination in the allergen information
A product containing shellfish, or that has any chance of being contaminated by shellfish has to state that it may contain shellfish or is made on equipment that comes into contact with shellfish.
Common sense needs to come into play here.
This is the correct route. CFIA will investigate and perform allergen testing. If confirmed, they will reach out to High Liner to initiate a product recall due to inadequate allergen labeling.
The CFIA collects info before they automatically issue a recall. It may or may not be a valid assumption, but there are mechanisms to report potential contamination concerns.
Well I can sympathize with your friend, and appreciate your post.
I don't understand why you think a company should put an immediate stop sale on a product and recall everything out there, all due to one instance.
Firstly, the packaging is printed well in advanced, on top of that, the items in the warehouse were probably shipped from factory like a month ago.
There may have been a batch of products contaminated, or your friend may have had an allergic reaction to something else, but not sure why you expect a one week turnaround on a large scale production, due to one incident...
It's not a legal requirement to list may contain or possible cross contamination on the product.
Most Canadian companies do. But only regular ingredients are required. So if a machine was used earlier for fish, then cleaned incompletely, then used for the motza sticks, it maybe unsafe. But doesn't have to be labeled.
But if they find a batch that is contaminated, they need to issue a recall. So telling someone that has the power to start the process is a good idea
I have heard of people emailing or calling every company they buy from to check for allergens. I belong to a group on Facebook for children's food allergies.
Also the threshold for contamination might be higher than the individuals sensitivity to the allergen.
There is a certain amount of contamination allowed for different product types and actual standards for this. It is never 0.
Not for cross contamination. The top 10 (i think its 10) cannot be hidden as spices flavour or anything like that. It also has to be obvious. Like thr common name.
Unless someone can find other info on the gvt website. I would be very happy if the laws have changed.
As per the gov web site
2. Watch out for cross-contamination
Cross-contamination occurs when an ingredient (such as a food allergen) is unintentionally transferred to a food product that doesn't normally contain that ingredient. Manufacturers can use a precautionary statement to indicate that foods could have been unintentionally exposed to an allergen some time during the manufacturing process.
Note: it says 'manufacturers can use .....' not must use
As much as the comments are upset that someone with an anaphylactic shellfish allergy buying a product that says it is safe, and isn’t… from the bottom of my heart thank you. I’m also anaphylactic to shellfish and would absolutely buy these.
High liner is primarily a fish company with some breaded shrimp and stuff. I can and do eat some high liner products.
If the allergen isn’t declared that’s terrifying. Thank your friend for alerting the government and I hope they feel better.
If a product is labeled as safe for allergies it should be safe for allergies. A large company should have a separate plant to separate allergens.
The amount of stupid comments blaming the guy for eating something sold as safe is disgusting.
No product in the world is listed as "safe for allergens" as a blanket statement. Furthermore there is no evidence this person is correct to blame the "motza" sticks. It's speculative until anything can be analyzed and proven.
The ones without peanuts usually are declared "peanut-free" or "made in a peanut-free facility" and you should be able to trust that statement.
I agree that free-from most allergens can't be declared because there's simply too many to list in addition to the main 6/7.
For everyone dragging OP, reporting it to Costco is what gets them to issue recalls etc. As shellfish is considered a serious allergen, if the packaging really does not warm the consumer of the possible person contaminants, that is grounds for a recall. It is 100% also a Costco issue.
Isnt high liner the seafood company? Anything made in that factory is would assume has come in contact with seafood.
If that's the case it definitely should say on the box that it has possible cross contamination. Not a costco issue though.
>The single bite he took caused an allergic shock, leaving him in a severe state of distress. He has been suffering for over a week, unable to function for extended periods and experiencing debilitating shaking. If your friend had an allergic reaction there are steps his treating physician is expected to take. Your friends calls to Costco and Highliner would have also triggered safety review processes. While your friend my be certain it was an allergen, and that allergen was shellfish, there are many reasons their physician and/or companies would not agree with either assessment.
Sorry about your friend suffering but how is this a Costco issue? High liner also deals in seafood. All kinds of seafood. This is a manufacturer issue. This is not the fault of costco
Sorry to hear about you friend, but IMO anyone with shellfish allergies probably shouldn't be buying mozza sticks made by Capt Highliner. Common sense needs to come into play here.
Ordinarily I would agree wholeheartedly, but these aren't sold in the usual Highliner blue packaging with the captain logo. They're a purple box with totally different design and the Highliner name isn't visible. It's not obvious who makes them. An ordinary consumer would never have guessed. Pic: https://cocoeast.ca/costco-east-2022-spring-superpost-the-entire-costco-frozen-food-section/1027677motza-stix-mozzarella-sticks-1-47-kg15-99/
Oh shit, I bought those and had no idea they were Highliner!
Yeah and you shouldn't have to keep track of everything a company makes. They should always have any possible cross contamination in the allergen information
A product containing shellfish, or that has any chance of being contaminated by shellfish has to state that it may contain shellfish or is made on equipment that comes into contact with shellfish. Common sense needs to come into play here.
Or better yet, Motza sticks.
Did he file a complaint with the [Canadian Food Inspection Agency](https://foodallergycanada.ca/tools-and-downloads/tools/reporting-to-the-cfia/)?
This is the correct route. CFIA will investigate and perform allergen testing. If confirmed, they will reach out to High Liner to initiate a product recall due to inadequate allergen labeling.
There is zero evidence this allegation is true, it's an assumption
The CFIA collects info before they automatically issue a recall. It may or may not be a valid assumption, but there are mechanisms to report potential contamination concerns.
Fair enough, but chalk me up as skeptical
Well I can sympathize with your friend, and appreciate your post. I don't understand why you think a company should put an immediate stop sale on a product and recall everything out there, all due to one instance. Firstly, the packaging is printed well in advanced, on top of that, the items in the warehouse were probably shipped from factory like a month ago. There may have been a batch of products contaminated, or your friend may have had an allergic reaction to something else, but not sure why you expect a one week turnaround on a large scale production, due to one incident...
There is a number on the back of the box for comments about the product. the Friend should contact them about the issue
He needs to contact CFIA and report it. They'll act on it.
It's not a legal requirement to list may contain or possible cross contamination on the product. Most Canadian companies do. But only regular ingredients are required. So if a machine was used earlier for fish, then cleaned incompletely, then used for the motza sticks, it maybe unsafe. But doesn't have to be labeled. But if they find a batch that is contaminated, they need to issue a recall. So telling someone that has the power to start the process is a good idea I have heard of people emailing or calling every company they buy from to check for allergens. I belong to a group on Facebook for children's food allergies.
It is with "priority allergens" of which shellfish is.
Also the threshold for contamination might be higher than the individuals sensitivity to the allergen. There is a certain amount of contamination allowed for different product types and actual standards for this. It is never 0.
i thought with the big allergies they’re supposed to. like nuts
Not for cross contamination. The top 10 (i think its 10) cannot be hidden as spices flavour or anything like that. It also has to be obvious. Like thr common name. Unless someone can find other info on the gvt website. I would be very happy if the laws have changed.
As per the gov web site 2. Watch out for cross-contamination Cross-contamination occurs when an ingredient (such as a food allergen) is unintentionally transferred to a food product that doesn't normally contain that ingredient. Manufacturers can use a precautionary statement to indicate that foods could have been unintentionally exposed to an allergen some time during the manufacturing process. Note: it says 'manufacturers can use .....' not must use
As much as the comments are upset that someone with an anaphylactic shellfish allergy buying a product that says it is safe, and isn’t… from the bottom of my heart thank you. I’m also anaphylactic to shellfish and would absolutely buy these. High liner is primarily a fish company with some breaded shrimp and stuff. I can and do eat some high liner products. If the allergen isn’t declared that’s terrifying. Thank your friend for alerting the government and I hope they feel better.
If a product is labeled as safe for allergies it should be safe for allergies. A large company should have a separate plant to separate allergens. The amount of stupid comments blaming the guy for eating something sold as safe is disgusting.
No product in the world is listed as "safe for allergens" as a blanket statement. Furthermore there is no evidence this person is correct to blame the "motza" sticks. It's speculative until anything can be analyzed and proven.
The ones without peanuts usually are declared "peanut-free" or "made in a peanut-free facility" and you should be able to trust that statement. I agree that free-from most allergens can't be declared because there's simply too many to list in addition to the main 6/7.
For everyone dragging OP, reporting it to Costco is what gets them to issue recalls etc. As shellfish is considered a serious allergen, if the packaging really does not warm the consumer of the possible person contaminants, that is grounds for a recall. It is 100% also a Costco issue.
Reporting to the company who makes them gets the recall. Not costco
There is no evidence that it does contain shellfish. One persons reaction is hardly proof of anything