...
By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
More than 54,000 boxes of East West Tea Company tea have been recalled after traces of pesticides were found in its Organic Yogi Echinacea Immune Support product.
East West Tea Company issued the voluntary recall, which was initiated on March 12 and is ongoing. The tea was distributed nationwide.
"Organic Yogi Echinacea Immune Support product is recalled because pesticide residues were detected above action levels," the FDA information page said.
Read More on U.S.
...
The recall was a Class III, according to the FDA site, meaning that "use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences."
It is unclear if East West Tea Company typically uses pesticides on its Yogi tea products or why the product was adversely affected.
Many lot numbers are impacted, and the full list of recalled tea boxes is available at this link. If customers find one of the recalled teas in their possession, they should immediately discard it. It's unclear if East West Tea Company is offering a refund or exchange for the recalled items.
There are 16 bags of tea per box, meaning more than 877,000 bags of tea were impacted. A Yogi spokesperson issued the following statement and requested that the full statement be published:
"Yogi has the honor of serving over 1.5 billion cups of tea to consumers each year. As a company that takes pride in selling organic products and relies on organic farming practices, we are mindful of this responsibility. As part of routine audit procedures, we recently detected unexpected traces of pesticides in some of our Echinacea Immune Support tea," the spokesperson told Newsweek. "While Yogi does not use pesticides, buying only to Organic Specifications that do not allow conventional pesticide use, we exist within a complex supply chain network where not everyone values organic practices in the same way that we do. For example, if a neighboring farm is applying pesticides or chemical fertilizers, those applications may drift onto our farmers' organic land. And while the traces of pesticides found in the Echinacea posed no risk of harm or illness, the product did not meet our high quality standards our consumers deserve.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we immediately notified the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate voluntary recall procedures," the statement continued. "Since that time, we have been following FDA protocols and are working with our retail partners on specific next steps, including removing potentially affected products from store shelves and having them returned to us for disposal. In addition, we are working with all ingredient vendors to ensure full compliance with our supplier expectations and testing requirements. We also have engaged new partners to add additional testing capabilities across all of our products. Yogi is committed to making delicious and functional products, made with the highest quality, organic, and sustainably sourced ingredients. We apologize for any concern the recall may have caused. Any consumers with concerns can reach us at customerservice@yogiproducts.com or on our website (https://yogiproducts.com/contact-customer-service/), and can return their Echinacea Immune Support tea to the original purchase location for a full refund."
The FDA has issued dozens of food-related recalls since the start of the year, as well as 234 recalls in 2023.
In some cases, the recall alerts warn of potentially severe consequences for consumers due to the presence of undeclared allergens or potential bacteria contamination, such as listeria. This year's impacted products range from pet food to dried fruit and salad kits, among dozens of others.
Research published by life sciences software company MasterControl last December found that food recalls issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the FDA have jumped by 115 percent since 2018. There were 280 recalls issued between both agencies in 2018, and the number more than doubled to 603 recalls issued in 2022
Most recently, some recalled items have included several varieties of cream cheese sold at ALDI over salmonella contamination concerns; Natural Sourcing International's Great Value Organic Black Chia Seeds, also due to the "potential presence" of salmonella; and Goat Milk Formula Recipe Kit after the FDA declared the item does not provide sufficient nutrition when used as infant formula.
Other items the FDA has recently urged to be removed from the market include Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts and Deluxe Lightly Salted Mixed Nuts due to their potential contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
Update 5/24/24, 10:02 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a statement from Yogi.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines