Sliced mushrooms recalled from Woolworths, Aldi, Coles etc over potential plastic hazard

Packs of mushrooms were recalled from major retailers on Friday. Mushroom Exchange has found chunks of plastic in some of its packs and called for their recall from Australian supermarkets nationwide, including Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.

According to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ), the affected products include 200g, 375g and 500g of Sliced Mushrooms — Brown and White. These packs are sold in Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, Queensland and ACT. The recall is due to the potential presence of large pieces of white plastic in punnets. These products have Best Before or Use By dates of up to and including 19/07/2018.

“Following the discovery of damage to plastic rollers on a packaging line at its Victorian mushroom production facility, the Costa Mushroom category has issued a consumer alert advising that some punnets of sliced mushrooms could contain large pieces of white plastic, and that the product is being recalled,” Costa group company, which owns Mushroom Exchange, said in a statement, adding that its product of sliced mushrooms in plastic bags are not affected.

“As soon as the issue was detected, even though there were no reported incidents, Costa advised food safety authorities of the intention to conduct a recall, and retailers were notified to withdraw the product from sale.”

The company added that even though the probability of consumer impact is low and that large pieces of white plastic would be highly visible to consumers, it still advised people to return their unused products to the store of purchase to receive a full refund.

The recalled products are sold as Woolworths and Coles brands under their respective stores, as the Karidale brand at Aldi, and as Costa Mushrooms in greengrocers and other independent stores.