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‘Spam in NMI not included in recall’
Spam products that are being sold in the CNMI are not included in the recall being implemented by the company, according to an official of the company that distributes the product here.
D&Q resident manager Max Kretzers said they immediately made an inventory of all the Spam that’s either being sold in stores or inside their warehouse in Lower Base last Sunday to check if the product is safe to eat.
The Minnesota-based Hormel Foods Corp. has issued a U.S.-wide recall of more than 220,000 lbs of their 12-ounce canned meat product after receiving reports of shards of metal inside the product.
D&Q is a sister company of the Saipan Tribune and one of several business units under TanHoldings Corp.
Kretzers told Saipan Tribune that he joined other D&Q personnel in inspecting the Spam that’s being sold in various stores on the island and the ones that are still awaiting delivery and distribution.
He assured the CNMI public that D&Q’s batch of the popular brand is not included in the recall made by the Hormel Foods, which recalled some of the 12-ounce Spam Classic last Sunday.
“We’re also waiting for more information from Hormel. But once we learned yesterday of the recall, we immediately checked all the stores and in our storeroom. We wanted to make sure everything is okay here,” said Kretzers.
“We checked the information on the products and the CNMI is not affected by the recall. We’re waiting for other specifics and reports from [Hormel] but the date and batch numbers of those being recalled are not here in the CNMI.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service said Saturday that four consumers have complained that they found metal shavings while eating canned products sold by Hormel.
Cans of Spam that should not be eaten have the EST 199N designation due to the risk of oral injuries. The cans have February 2021 as its “Best By” date and have the following production codes: F020881 to F020889.
“We worked to quickly check everything and assure our customers that we’re okay here in the CNMI,” said Kretzers. “Our products are also shipped in other Micronesian islands, that’s why we also contacted our other customers to see if there’s any batch of the product that’s being recalled.”
