Anthony's Inc. Issues Allergy Alert on Undeclared Allergens in Products

Date of Recall

2003-08-05

Recall Details

Ambridge, PA -- August 5, 2003 -- Anthony's, Inc. of Ambridge, Pennsylvania issues an allergy alert on undeclared ingredients in its following products: Breaded Mozzarella Cheese Sticks, Breaded Provolone Cheese Sticks, Battered Mozzarella Cheese Sticks, Pepperoni & Cheddar Nuggets and Hot Pepper Cheese Nuggets.

Anthony's, Inc. is alerting consumers in NJ, NY, OH, MI, MA, and PA of undeclared ingredients used in the manufacturing of certain Anthony's products. The labeled product(s) are as follows: Anthony's Breaded Mozzarella Cheese Sticks, Anthony's Breaded Provolone Cheese Sticks, Anthony's Battered Mozzarella Cheese Sticks, Anthony's Pepperoni & Cheddar Nuggets and Anthony's Hot Pepper Cheese Nuggets. People who have allergies to wheat, (or bleached wheat flour), corn, (or yellow corn flour), eggs, Yellow Dye 5, Red Dye 40 and Blue Dye 1 run a risk of serious life-threatening allergic reactions if they consume these products.

The aforementioned products come in either a 10 or 12 pound box marked with various dates from January 2003 through July 2003 for Food Service. Also, 1 and 2 pound white boxes with the same dates for Retail.

No illnesses or complaints have been reported to date in connection with this problem. Other than the aforementioned unlabeled/undeclared ingredients, there has been no finding of any problems with the quality of these products.

This alert was initiated by the FDA after their recent inspection in which they discovered that certain products did not clearly reveal the presence of wheat, flour, eggs, Yellow Dye 5, Red Dye 40 and Blue Dye 1, which in some instances cause allergic reactions to the consumers of said products and have been declared allergens by the FDA. The FDA's Investigation indicates that the problem was merely caused by insufficient editing of the ingredient labeling.

Since that time, Anthony's has issued new labels on products which bear the Anthony's name and have appropriately notified all other corporate entities which distribute Anthony's products under their own label. Accordingly, Anthony's has notified any and all distributors who may have sold the product to retail and/or wholesale outlets to notify their customers as to the status of the product(s) in question, in addition to this press release.