Diving overview:
- TreeHouse Foods, the company that produces Walmart’s Great Value chicken broth that is subject to the recall, said in an email that the latest problem was due to a “corrected internal process error” and not the packaging. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a Dec. 11 notice that it was conducting the recall due to “the potential for packaging failures that could compromise the sterility of the product and lead to spoilage.”
- According to the FDA’s notice, this recall covers a total of 2,023 cases, with 120 cases per pallet, or approximately 17 pallets worth of product. More than 12,100 boxes are affected, in units of six per case. Walmart posted the item on its recall website on January 14th. This shows that the affected 48-ounce boxes of Great Value broth were sold in nine states.
- Tetra Pak provides aseptic boxes for broth. A company spokesperson said in an email that the company was aware of the recall but could not comment on operating procedures outside of its own. “We can only share that we are not aware of any procedural issues with our operations,” the spokesperson said. “It is worth noting that no recalls have been issued for our packaging materials.”
Dive Insights:
Over the past few years, inflation concerns in the United States have led to a surge in demand for private label food, with private label sales reaching a record high of $271 billion in 2024. TreeHouse Foods is the largest pure-play private label manufacturer in the United States. In addition to Walmart, its customers include Aldi, Amazon, Costco, Kroger and Target.
TreeHouse is no stranger to reminiscing, including gravy. Beginning in September 2023, bone broth recalls at retailers such as Costco and Walmart contributed to an 8% decline in sales in the fourth quarter of that year. The impact extends well beyond that, with the company reporting that it impacted “our results of operations for the first nine months of 2024.”
FDA recalls don’t typically result from packaging-related issues, George Misko, senior partner at Keller & Heckman, said of recalls in general. “It’s rare that we find a packaging issue that causes a real problem that requires some type of recall,” Misko said. “It’s more common to see problems during the production process. This could be related to the equipment used to package something.”
TreeHouse voluntarily recalled the Great Value broth in question, as it does with most recalls, Misko said. “Rarely does the FDA push back with a company over whether to recall something,” he added.
In an email, TreeHouse described the recall as “very small.” Treehouse said, “It is normal for intermittent deviations to occur during the production process, resulting in results that deviate from specifications.”
Tetra Pak similarly characterized the recall as affecting a “limited amount” of product. “Food safety and quality are our top priorities and we are cooperating fully with the review and investigation,” a Tetra Pak spokesperson said.
Misko, a member of Keller & Heckman’s FDA practice group that specializes in packaging, said the sterile boxes included in the Walmart recall are “a very sophisticated type of packaging.” … So companies that make those kinds of products tend to be very careful about what they’re doing and watching for problems while the product is being produced.”
He emphasized that packaging-related recalls are rare and have seen very few in his more than 30 years of experience in the field.
The FDA notice lists the TreeHouse recall as “unclassified,” which suggests the agency is still investigating, but the issue likely does not pose an immediate, serious threat to the public, Misko explained.
He explained the FDA’s three-tiered recall system, where Tier 1 means “there is a reasonable possibility that use or exposure to the product will cause serious adverse health effects or cause death.” An example would be a product with known listeria contamination. Level 2 indicates that the contaminated product may cause temporary illness or discomfort. Level 3 recalls are much less severe. There is no known contamination, but minor effects such as possible off-odor or taste of the product may occur.
The FDA requires product manufacturers and retailers to quickly and widely disseminate information regarding Class 1 recalls, Misko said. Considering that the TreeHouse broth recall is still “unclassified” and the public notice wasn’t widely known until nearly a month after the date listed in the FDA notice, the severity is likely low.
Cosmetic and food recalls are on the rise, and the FDA reported that last fiscal year had the most recalls since 2019. According to WGBH, recalls are becoming more fragmented, with traceability and communication becoming more effective. That means some smaller recalls that previously weren’t on the public’s radar are now getting more attention.
There is now much greater sensitivity among companies and the public about these issues, Misko said. “Food safety has become a very hot topic over the last decade or decade and a half,” he said.
