EU, Spain and U.S. Issue High-Risk Alerts on Cherries, Ice Cream, Blueberries

Food-safety regulators on both sides of the Atlantic issued high-risk warnings on Thursday for three unrelated products—Spanish cherries, gluten-free ice cream and organic blueberries—after tests detected pesticide, undeclared gluten and potential listeria contamination, respectively. The European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed said Austrian officials found 0.06 mg/kg of the insecticide ometoato in a lot of cherries grown in Spain, six times the bloc’s legal maximum. The fruit was halted at the border and authorities are tracing any onward distribution. In Spain, the national food-safety agency AESAN ordered the withdrawal of Royne’s “Special Line” vanilla cones that are marketed as gluten-free. Five production lots distributed across 11 regions were found to contain gluten, posing a risk to consumers with celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Separately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified as Class I—a category reserved for the most serious threats—Alma Pak International’s recall of 12,000 pounds of organic blueberries shipped to a North Carolina customer after routine tests indicated possible listeria monocytogenes. No illnesses have been reported in connection with any of the three alerts so far.