Essex County Council’s Trading Standards recently discovered 12 pallets of dried apricots from Turkey at a large food importer and distributor that had no allergen declaration applied to the labelling. Suspicion were aroused as the apricots were a very bright orange colour – associated with the use of a preservative or further treatment.

Analysis found that the fruits contained 1700mg/kg of sulphur dioxide – a potentially allergenic preservative used to maintain colour and prolong shelf life. The limit at which labelling is required is 10mg/kg. The Food Standards Agency was immediately alerted and the business was required to relabel all the packs with a ‘Contains Sulphites’ statement.

The business also had to bear the costs of recalling 20% of the original stock that had already been sent out to retailers across London.