Aquiles Von Fach, the owner of the Von Fach brand of smoked salmon, which Chilean authorities recalled last month over fears of listeria contamination, is working to present evidence that will allow it to gain clearance from food safety authorities.
Von Fach told SeafoodSource he is doing everything possible to get the company’s operations up and running once more.
“The process is slow. We’ve presented our case and the Seremi [regional health secretary] is reviewing it in terms of listeria prevention. We’ve turned in all of our plant analysis, in legal terms we’ve made it the clearest we could in order to avoid fines, which could get very expensive,” he said.
Von Fach emphasized that the affected plant is for national supply in Chile, with another plant for international delivery continuing operations under a different resolution for handling measures.
“We still haven’t received the backup analysis from them [the health authorities]. We really don’t know how many lots they say were affected. I understand they were looking at one lot, but other information that has arrived to me says it was six lots, which is what was reported on TV, so it’s not clear. There’s nothing official yet,” he said.
The company has been hurt by the recall, Von Fach said, estimating current losses at around CLP 30 million (USD 38,000, EUR 35,000).
“First, we had to recall all of the production, even if they weren’t in the lots that were supposedly contaminated, and throw it all out, in the supermarkets,” he said. “We halted another five lots that we are analyzing. Our last production was 23 January and that lot was fine but we had to throw it out.”
For now, Von Fach said the focus is to free up production and get the plant running again in order to return to delivering to supermarkets. The executive did not rule out layoffs as a result of the shutdown, though he said the majority of workers are currently on vacation. Nor did he rule out taking legal action if the Seremi alerts turn out to be unfounded. The company runs its own tests for bacteria every two weeks on a normal basis, and with the alert workers ran more tests but found no bacteria in any of the lots, he said.
The company experienced an economic shock after the high-profile announcement of the recall, Von Fach said. On 25 January, Rosa Oyarce, the Seremi director for Chile’s Metropolitan Region, went on television to declare Von Fach’s smoked salmon contaminated. Seremi instructed the Chilean Supermarket Association to remove the salmon brand from the market due to the risk it poses to the health of consumers.
“We have declared a food alert, which requires the withdrawal of all the products of Von Fach-branded smoked salmon throughout the country. It is the listeria monocytogenes bacteria that can cause significant damage and serious problems. Affected people get very bad headaches, dizziness, nausea and fever, because this can cause meningitis and encephalitis,” she said in a nationally broadcast announcement.
According to Oyarce, 32 people were infected by listeria in Chile last year, resulting in 22 mortalities. Those at highest risk for mortality from listeria include pregnant women, young children, and senior citizens, Oyarce said.
In response, Von Fach lamented “the great damage they have done to our company and the prestige of our brand with more than 20 years in the national market.”
This isn’t the first time Von Fach has gone through the pain of a recall process. It experienced a similar situation at the beginning of 2017, when Chile’s Health Ministry issued an alert for the public to avoid eating Von Fach smoked salmon due to listeria, according to Chilean publication SalmonExpert. At that time, Aquiles Von Fach also claimed that the ministry was less than forthcoming with information.
“What I consider very irresponsible is the information that the authority has provided, because one day it sows panic, saying that the product is to be destroyed, that it is to be eliminated, that it is not to even be given to the dogs, but the next day it states that the product can be consumed, but cooked,” he was quoted as saying in 2017. “The whole issue has been very badly handled by them and we feel wronged. The same authority has an inefficient protocol in these types of cases, as it is that same authority that has to deliver clear guidelines and how to proceed in light of a food alert of this type.”
Photo courtesy of Von Fach
