May 29, 2025 • 12 mins
What happens when allergen contamination starts at the farm—and no one saw it coming?
In this powerful episode of our Allergen Podcast Series, Jatin Patel from FGS Ingredients shares the real story behind a nationwide recall involving mustard contaminated with peanut traces. Hosted by Alan Cadman of Intertek Food Services UK, the discussion explores:
- Inconsistent lab results (PCR vs ELISA)
- The operational impact of unexpected recalls
- Steps to protect consumers from unknown risks
💡We can manage known risks. But what about the ones we don’t know yet?
Speakers:
- Jatin Patel - FGS Ingredients
- Alan Cadman - Intertek Food Services
Download our complimentary ebook to learn what a food allergen is, how to test for allergens in food, and the UK and EU Regulations for allergen labelling. Download here!
Follow us on- Intertek's Assurance In Action || Twitter || LinkedIn.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 00 (00:08):
Welcome to our second episode in our Allergen
podcast series.
This episode will deal with therisk for raw material supply
and supplier management.
In this segment, our businessdevelopment manager, Alan
Cadman, is joined by Jatin Patelfrom FGS Ingredients to discuss
a recent incident.
Over to you guys.
Alan Cadman (00:24):
Thank you, Mandy.
I'm Alan Cadman, as Mandy said,a business development manager
for Intercept Food Services UK.
It's with great pleasure I'dlike to introduce Jatin Patel to
talk about a recent incidentwhere mustard was contaminated
with peanut powder.
So without further ado, Jatin,would you like to introduce
yourself and FGS Ingredients?
Jatin Patel (00:45):
Thank you, Alan.
Thank you for allowing me toshare the story today.
My name is Jatin Patel.
I'm the Director of Operationsat FGS Ingredients, a company
that has proudly servedcustomers for the last five
decades, and today I'm going totalk about the mustard
contamination issue.
I'm here to talk aboutsomething that goes beyond
(01:06):
numbers, protocols, and businessstrategy.
I'm here to talk about peopleand their safety, their trust,
and the responsibility we carryas food industry professionals
to protect both.
FGS Ingredients was establishedin Leicester in 1974.
We're a family-owned business,now well in its third generation
of leadership.
(01:26):
We have grown to be a principalsupplier of natural ingredients
and pride ourselves in ourservice quality and our wealth
of knowledge, allowing us tocater to all our clients' needs.
I was at the airport when I wasinformed about the complaint
regarding a possible peanutcontamination.
We immediately started thetraceability and testing of the
(01:50):
product, drew four samples andsent it for testing.
Our initial reaction of shockand disbelief was there as
historically it was never aknown issue.
We routinely carry out riskassessments of all our products
and since historically peanutcontamination in mustard was
never a known risk or threat, ithas never been a known issue
(02:13):
for us or anyone else as weregularly horizon scan as well.
next day i came in early tocatch up on emails and
complaints when our unannouncedbrc auditor showed up for their
annual audit and without atechnical manager who had left
the week before to join acompany closer to home um you
know we carried on with our brcaudit as well as the the um
(02:38):
investigation into the peanutcontamination
Alan Cadman (02:41):
absolutely
Jatin Patel (02:43):
when we received the results back of the
threesome The three samplestested negative and one tested a
low positive.
They're positive, but eventhough.
The BRC auditor on site, EHAand FSA were all informed about
our findings.
And based on the results andadvised by the authorities, a
decision was made as aprecautionary measure to
(03:06):
initiate a recall.
As we still didn't know wherethe contamination was coming
from, We got third partiestesting carried out of the
factory and the staff.
Where was it coming from ourfactory?
The results were negative.
By now we had informed thesupplier of the ongoing issue.
GT Agro is a BRC accredited andnut free site like us.
(03:26):
They like us were in shock anddisbelief.
We had also instructed him toget third parties swabbing done
at the factory which had alsocome back negative.
To give customer reassurancesand confidence, we have now
started testing for allproducts, whatever we were
supplying to our customers, andalso the batches of mustard we
(03:46):
had on site from India.
These batches initially testednegative, but as our testing
grew, we saw some batches ofmustard were testing negative
and positive.
With the help of the EHR andFSA, we realized that the
batches of mustard had hotspots,which meant that there was no
consistency.
in the testing.
(04:07):
These batches were not justfrom one supplier in India, we
were seeing it from severalsuppliers.
Therefore, after advice fromthe EHO and FSA and on the
grounds of abundance ofprecaution, we withdrew all
mustard and any blendscontaining mustard going back
two years, even though we hadresults showing a negative
result on certain batches.
(04:28):
As the contamination wasn'tfrom our factory or our
supplier, our investigation tookus back to the farm We realised
there that there were farmswere growing peanut in nearby
proximity to the mustard, aswell as using secondhand bags to
fill the crop when harvesting.
We realised that there waspossible cross-contamination
(04:48):
happening at farm level, andthis was confirmed by the Indian
government and the FSA as thefindings of their investigation.
Not all the recalls were byFGS.
Customers of customers startedmost recalls but on the alerts
they were mentioned as FGSrecalls.
Absolutely.
Alan Cadman (05:10):
So what have the ongoing issues really been for
FGS ingredients as a result ofthis incident, Tim?
Jatin Patel (05:16):
Well, we have a recall policy which we follow.
We regularly carry out mockproduct recalls, testing the
process.
We realise practice and realityare very different.
How do you practice the widerpressure and levels of stress it
creates within the business?
whilst the recalls andwithdrawals were ongoing the
(05:37):
knock-on effects it created wereimmense some issues were dealt
with we dealt with too difficultto manage we had a winding up
petition initiated on us whichwas withdrawn within two hours
as they didn't have all thecorrect information we didn't
realize at the time that with itfor 20 24 to 48 hours that our
(05:58):
credit rating goes to zero asour credit rating went to zero
most of our suppliers thoughtbecause of the recall
withdrawal, we were liquidatingor closing the business down.
We were forced to clear allbalances by the next working
day, and we were put on proforma for the next three to four
months.
Insurance companies notifiedbanks.
(06:20):
They started their own duediligences, restricting our use.
We had a professionalconsultant showing up to the
family home unannounced onSunday morning to offer advice
to liquidate and start a newbusiness, which caused a huge
amount of stress and pain to thewhole family as the business
was started by my grandfatherand the emotional connect to the
(06:42):
business was too big.
We had daily requests of 30traceabilities a day at the time
from the EHR and customers,which was impossible for us to
do along with 800 emails toanswer.
and everyone wanting answers asquickly as possible.
I think the whole team at FGSwere working 16, 17 hour days,
six to seven days a week forthree to four months just to get
(07:07):
back to everyone and answereveryone's questions for the EHR
included, which created its ownpressure.
Alan Cadman (07:15):
You can only try and guess what it must have been
like for you and the team, tobe honest.
So have you had to take anyadditional actions such as
precautionary allergen labelingstatements?
Jatin Patel (07:28):
Yeah, so the biggest question we try to
answer since the incident is howdo we protect ourselves and our
customers from the unknown?
We and everyone in the industrycan protect itself and against
known risk, but it's impossiblewhen no one knew the risk was
there from the beginning.
We at FGS started testing allingredients against peanut and
(07:51):
and other allergens.
We have implemented testingwith suppliers to test the
products before dispatch, andwe're testing internally as well
on arrival.
We have started PAL statements,which we feel there is a risk,
but PAL statements are veryunpopular in the industry
itself, and it meant we've lostmany customers.
We undertake regular factoryand staff swabbing internally,
(08:14):
so we've increased the number ofchecks we're carrying out.
We've also conducted in-depthreassessments of all our
suppliers, which is stillongoing.
The impact it had was immense,as it meant to recreate a new or
smaller pool of suppliers.
Absolutely.
Alan Cadman (08:33):
So really as a result of it all, and I know
that we've talked about itbefore and you're not fully
resolved yet, is there anyadvice you'd want to give to
other businesses as a result ofwhat you've experienced?
Jatin Patel (08:45):
Yeah, we do.
Well, every day we're remindedof the power we hold as food
industry professionals.
We are responsible to nourish,sustain and protect.
But that power comes with greatresponsibility, one that we
must never take lightly.
Our story is a testament to thefact that no one study or
process is 100% secure.
Since we deal with naturalproducts, our keen focus must be
(09:08):
on maintaining towards a new,about knowledge and sharing
information with other people inthe industry.
Alan Cadman (09:15):
Yeah, thank you for explaining all this chatting.
I mean, it's fantastic to heara real-life story and, you know,
that you're so willing to shareyour story to help other food
companies now and in the future.
I know you've got a questionover different peanut resorts
from different laboratories forthe same product.
(09:36):
So do you want to explain thata little?
Jatin Patel (09:39):
Yeah, we've experienced internally where
we've had true samples from abatch of manufacturing or
production we're carrying out.
And the samples we drew, we'vesplit it into three and sent it
to three different labs at thesame time for testing for peanut
protein.
And we've received variedresults back.
(10:00):
say we received two that arenegative and one that are
positive one is positive but itwas drawn at the same time it
was taken at the same time soit's you know for us it's very
confusing then what do we followwe've we've had to put the
batch back on hold because youyou know you've got to follow
the positive on it not thenegative but it's uh sometimes
we're getting conflictingresults
Alan Cadman (10:21):
absolutely so the first step is understand exactly
what methods has been used asdifferent methods can give you
different results, becausethey're looking at slightly
different things.
So there are two methodsroutinely available when we're
looking at an allergen.
There's PCR testing, whichlooks at levels of DNA, and
(10:41):
ELISA testing, which looks atprotein levels.
The next stage is to understandif any of the kits that have
been used by the laboratory havecross-reactivities against
them.
so that each kit manufacturersends an instruction leaflet
with the kit to the laboratory.
(11:02):
They list cross-reactivators.
Laboratories really should belooking through that and telling
you if we think that any ofyour products may fall into that
category, where there might becross-reactivators, but they
certainly will be able toprovide you with that list,
along with LOQs, LOD, and thatbasic information.
(11:23):
But ultimately, If you're stillconcerned, go back to the labs
and say, I've got this.
I've got conflicting results.
What can you do?
We can repeat the sample.
Certainly within Intertech, wehave got both the ELISA and PCR
methods available.
So we can actually really onthe other method and look for
you as well.
(11:43):
So really don't be afraid tochallenge and go back to the
laboratory would be my advice.
Thank you.
It's fine.
So we will touch more onlaboratory practices with our
amazing Avid Allergen team, whoare looking forward to sharing
their knowledge on a futurepodcast.
Over the next few months, we'llalso touch on aspects such as
(12:06):
site controls, labeling, codecs,and vital, along with
sustainability.
Thank you so much again foryour time, Jatin, and sharing
your story with ourselves.
Thank you very much for havingme.
Welcome to our second episode in our Allergen
podcast series.
This episode will deal with therisk for raw material supply
and supplier management.
In this segment, our businessdevelopment manager, Alan
Cadman, is joined by Jatin Patelfrom FGS Ingredients to discuss
a recent incident.
Over to you guys.
Alan Cadman (00:24):
Thank you, Mandy.
I'm Alan Cadman, as Mandy said,a business development manager
for Intercept Food Services UK.
It's with great pleasure I'dlike to introduce Jatin Patel to
talk about a recent incidentwhere mustard was contaminated
with peanut powder.
So without further ado, Jatin,would you like to introduce
yourself and FGS Ingredients?
Jatin Patel (00:45):
Thank you, Alan.
Thank you for allowing me toshare the story today.
My name is Jatin Patel.
I'm the Director of Operationsat FGS Ingredients, a company
that has proudly servedcustomers for the last five
decades, and today I'm going totalk about the mustard
contamination issue.
I'm here to talk aboutsomething that goes beyond
(01:06):
numbers, protocols, and businessstrategy.
I'm here to talk about peopleand their safety, their trust,
and the responsibility we carryas food industry professionals
to protect both.
FGS Ingredients was establishedin Leicester in 1974.
We're a family-owned business,now well in its third generation
of leadership.
(01:26):
We have grown to be a principalsupplier of natural ingredients
and pride ourselves in ourservice quality and our wealth
of knowledge, allowing us tocater to all our clients' needs.
I was at the airport when I wasinformed about the complaint
regarding a possible peanutcontamination.
We immediately started thetraceability and testing of the
(01:50):
product, drew four samples andsent it for testing.
Our initial reaction of shockand disbelief was there as
historically it was never aknown issue.
We routinely carry out riskassessments of all our products
and since historically peanutcontamination in mustard was
never a known risk or threat, ithas never been a known issue
(02:13):
for us or anyone else as weregularly horizon scan as well.
next day i came in early tocatch up on emails and
complaints when our unannouncedbrc auditor showed up for their
annual audit and without atechnical manager who had left
the week before to join acompany closer to home um you
know we carried on with our brcaudit as well as the the um
(02:38):
investigation into the peanutcontamination
Alan Cadman (02:41):
absolutely
Jatin Patel (02:43):
when we received the results back of the
threesome The three samplestested negative and one tested a
low positive.
They're positive, but eventhough.
The BRC auditor on site, EHAand FSA were all informed about
our findings.
And based on the results andadvised by the authorities, a
decision was made as aprecautionary measure to
(03:06):
initiate a recall.
As we still didn't know wherethe contamination was coming
from, We got third partiestesting carried out of the
factory and the staff.
Where was it coming from ourfactory?
The results were negative.
By now we had informed thesupplier of the ongoing issue.
GT Agro is a BRC accredited andnut free site like us.
(03:26):
They like us were in shock anddisbelief.
We had also instructed him toget third parties swabbing done
at the factory which had alsocome back negative.
To give customer reassurancesand confidence, we have now
started testing for allproducts, whatever we were
supplying to our customers, andalso the batches of mustard we
(03:46):
had on site from India.
These batches initially testednegative, but as our testing
grew, we saw some batches ofmustard were testing negative
and positive.
With the help of the EHR andFSA, we realized that the
batches of mustard had hotspots,which meant that there was no
consistency.
in the testing.
(04:07):
These batches were not justfrom one supplier in India, we
were seeing it from severalsuppliers.
Therefore, after advice fromthe EHO and FSA and on the
grounds of abundance ofprecaution, we withdrew all
mustard and any blendscontaining mustard going back
two years, even though we hadresults showing a negative
result on certain batches.
(04:28):
As the contamination wasn'tfrom our factory or our
supplier, our investigation tookus back to the farm We realised
there that there were farmswere growing peanut in nearby
proximity to the mustard, aswell as using secondhand bags to
fill the crop when harvesting.
We realised that there waspossible cross-contamination
(04:48):
happening at farm level, andthis was confirmed by the Indian
government and the FSA as thefindings of their investigation.
Not all the recalls were byFGS.
Customers of customers startedmost recalls but on the alerts
they were mentioned as FGSrecalls.
Absolutely.
Alan Cadman (05:10):
So what have the ongoing issues really been for
FGS ingredients as a result ofthis incident, Tim?
Jatin Patel (05:16):
Well, we have a recall policy which we follow.
We regularly carry out mockproduct recalls, testing the
process.
We realise practice and realityare very different.
How do you practice the widerpressure and levels of stress it
creates within the business?
whilst the recalls andwithdrawals were ongoing the
(05:37):
knock-on effects it created wereimmense some issues were dealt
with we dealt with too difficultto manage we had a winding up
petition initiated on us whichwas withdrawn within two hours
as they didn't have all thecorrect information we didn't
realize at the time that with itfor 20 24 to 48 hours that our
(05:58):
credit rating goes to zero asour credit rating went to zero
most of our suppliers thoughtbecause of the recall
withdrawal, we were liquidatingor closing the business down.
We were forced to clear allbalances by the next working
day, and we were put on proforma for the next three to four
months.
Insurance companies notifiedbanks.
(06:20):
They started their own duediligences, restricting our use.
We had a professionalconsultant showing up to the
family home unannounced onSunday morning to offer advice
to liquidate and start a newbusiness, which caused a huge
amount of stress and pain to thewhole family as the business
was started by my grandfatherand the emotional connect to the
(06:42):
business was too big.
We had daily requests of 30traceabilities a day at the time
from the EHR and customers,which was impossible for us to
do along with 800 emails toanswer.
and everyone wanting answers asquickly as possible.
I think the whole team at FGSwere working 16, 17 hour days,
six to seven days a week forthree to four months just to get
(07:07):
back to everyone and answereveryone's questions for the EHR
included, which created its ownpressure.
Alan Cadman (07:15):
You can only try and guess what it must have been
like for you and the team, tobe honest.
So have you had to take anyadditional actions such as
precautionary allergen labelingstatements?
Jatin Patel (07:28):
Yeah, so the biggest question we try to
answer since the incident is howdo we protect ourselves and our
customers from the unknown?
We and everyone in the industrycan protect itself and against
known risk, but it's impossiblewhen no one knew the risk was
there from the beginning.
We at FGS started testing allingredients against peanut and
(07:51):
and other allergens.
We have implemented testingwith suppliers to test the
products before dispatch, andwe're testing internally as well
on arrival.
We have started PAL statements,which we feel there is a risk,
but PAL statements are veryunpopular in the industry
itself, and it meant we've lostmany customers.
We undertake regular factoryand staff swabbing internally,
(08:14):
so we've increased the number ofchecks we're carrying out.
We've also conducted in-depthreassessments of all our
suppliers, which is stillongoing.
The impact it had was immense,as it meant to recreate a new or
smaller pool of suppliers.
Absolutely.
Alan Cadman (08:33):
So really as a result of it all, and I know
that we've talked about itbefore and you're not fully
resolved yet, is there anyadvice you'd want to give to
other businesses as a result ofwhat you've experienced?
Jatin Patel (08:45):
Yeah, we do.
Well, every day we're remindedof the power we hold as food
industry professionals.
We are responsible to nourish,sustain and protect.
But that power comes with greatresponsibility, one that we
must never take lightly.
Our story is a testament to thefact that no one study or
process is 100% secure.
Since we deal with naturalproducts, our keen focus must be
(09:08):
on maintaining towards a new,about knowledge and sharing
information with other people inthe industry.
Alan Cadman (09:15):
Yeah, thank you for explaining all this chatting.
I mean, it's fantastic to heara real-life story and, you know,
that you're so willing to shareyour story to help other food
companies now and in the future.
I know you've got a questionover different peanut resorts
from different laboratories forthe same product.
(09:36):
So do you want to explain thata little?
Jatin Patel (09:39):
Yeah, we've experienced internally where
we've had true samples from abatch of manufacturing or
production we're carrying out.
And the samples we drew, we'vesplit it into three and sent it
to three different labs at thesame time for testing for peanut
protein.
And we've received variedresults back.
(10:00):
say we received two that arenegative and one that are
positive one is positive but itwas drawn at the same time it
was taken at the same time soit's you know for us it's very
confusing then what do we followwe've we've had to put the
batch back on hold because youyou know you've got to follow
the positive on it not thenegative but it's uh sometimes
we're getting conflictingresults
Alan Cadman (10:21):
absolutely so the first step is understand exactly
what methods has been used asdifferent methods can give you
different results, becausethey're looking at slightly
different things.
So there are two methodsroutinely available when we're
looking at an allergen.
There's PCR testing, whichlooks at levels of DNA, and
(10:41):
ELISA testing, which looks atprotein levels.
The next stage is to understandif any of the kits that have
been used by the laboratory havecross-reactivities against
them.
so that each kit manufacturersends an instruction leaflet
with the kit to the laboratory.
(11:02):
They list cross-reactivators.
Laboratories really should belooking through that and telling
you if we think that any ofyour products may fall into that
category, where there might becross-reactivators, but they
certainly will be able toprovide you with that list,
along with LOQs, LOD, and thatbasic information.
(11:23):
But ultimately, If you're stillconcerned, go back to the labs
and say, I've got this.
I've got conflicting results.
What can you do?
We can repeat the sample.
Certainly within Intertech, wehave got both the ELISA and PCR
methods available.
So we can actually really onthe other method and look for
you as well.
(11:43):
So really don't be afraid tochallenge and go back to the
laboratory would be my advice.
Thank you.
It's fine.
So we will touch more onlaboratory practices with our
amazing Avid Allergen team, whoare looking forward to sharing
their knowledge on a futurepodcast.
Over the next few months, we'llalso touch on aspects such as
(12:06):
site controls, labeling, codecs,and vital, along with
sustainability.
Thank you so much again foryour time, Jatin, and sharing
your story with ourselves.
Thank you very much for havingme.
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