February: Nuts and spices issue grows
Did the paprika or cumin contain almond and where does peanut come in? This is one of the many stories run by us as we followed the nuts and spices scandal as much as possible to see if it was adulteration, accidental contamination or food fraud behind recalls.
From the US and Canada to the UK and several countries in Europe - this issue was a common theme throughout the year.
Two points of note, one was the false positive which prompted cumin products to be recalled for containing almond. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said the initial PCR testing was wrong after further mass spectrometry analysis.
Another was Bart Ingrédients challenging, and winning, a recall of ground cumin due to almond prompting the UK Food Standards Agency to reverse the recall after it was found to be mahaleb and not almond.
This lead to much work by the Government Chemist which ultimately concluded almond in paprika and not mahaleb - so those recalls stood.
