Health concerns not cause for recall

The recall, issued by Shamrock Foods, Denver, of a number of Iced Coffee sample packets at a CSC campus food show Feb. 2 was not due to a health concern, but was only a precaution against the product not retaining “optimum taste,” the manufacturer said Friday.

Gayle Becker, consumer care specialist for Jet, the manufacturer, said that the last five digits of the coded number on the back of each packet specified the date of manufacture – in this case “11169” translated to Nov. 16, 2009.

Becker also said that the manufacturer guarantees the product’s quality to be good up until one year from the manufacture date.

“It’s not going to hurt you; it just might not maintain its optimum taste,” said Becker about the iced coffee.

Becker speculated that because the packets were made available as part of a food show sponsored by the campus dining services, the sponsors were more likely to be strict in regards to established food safety standards and recalled the product merely as a precaution.

Tracy Shuck, director of Creative Dining Services on campus, said that the recall originated from the college’s food distributor – Shamrock Foods of Denver.

Shuck also said that food services had no idea how many packets had been taken during the show.

A Shamrock representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday that the recalled product was part of a larger collection of extra samples donated by the distributor.