Seafood Brand Issues Recall for Prawns

Another huge recall has swept the seafood industry. Last week, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced a recall of Waitrose Frozen Cooked & Peeled Jumbo King Prawns and Essential Frozen Cooked King Prawns. The cooked product was reportedly mixed with uncooked product by mistake, so it’s essential to get these prawns off of store shelves.

The two Waitrose products can easily be identified by their size, batch code and expiration dates. The Frozen Cooked & Peeled Jumbo King Prawns were sold in 200-gram packages with the batch code VN394, and they may have “best before” dates “up to and including June 2023.” Meanwhile, the Essential Frozen Cooked Prawns were sold in 250-gram packages with the same batch code – VN394 – and their expiration dates are “up to and including February 2024.” Vendors and retailers were notified directly, so hopefully these prawns are no longer for sale on store shelves.

Customers who purchase these products should check their freezers and be sure to dispose of any recalled shrimp. The company has also posted noticed of the recall at the point of sale in the hopes of reaching customers if possible.
Customers can return these two products to the store where they were purchased for a full refund. Otherwise, they can simply be thrown away. Eating raw seafood comes with all kinds of potential issues including salmonella and other foodborne illnesses.

This is Waitrose’s second major recall of the month. The company recalled its Waitrose 2 British Hot Smoked Rainbow Trout Fillets on June 7 due to possible contamination with Listeria. Listeria monocytogenes can cause Listeriosis infections, which may be mild for some people but can be dangerous or even deadly for pregnant people, children, elderly people or immunocompromised people.

Again, Waitrose and the FSA posted notices of that recall at the point of sale in the hopes of reaching customers before the product was consumed. This is not as common in the U.S., but you can get food recall news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on social media. The agency typically posts recall notices on its website and then shares them more widely through Twitter and Facebook. Those with food sensitivities or allergies may want to consider arranging notifications for these kinds of posts.