Food alerts occur when there is reason to believe that a food may cause consumers to become ill.

Possible reasons include:

• discovery of an organism in a product which may make consumers sick
• discovery of a potential allergen in a product
• mislabelling or misbranding of food. For example, a food may contain an allergen, such as nuts or eggs, but those ingredients do not appear on the label

There are three main type of food alerts:

• Food withdrawal information notice - food withdrawals request that the retailer takes particular food off the shelves
   
• Food recall information notices - these alerts advise customers to return particular food to where it was purchased
   
• Food alerts for action - these alerts mean that food business and local authorities must take the relevant precautions to ensure the food involved is removed from the food chain directed by the FSA

Search for the latest food & allergy alerts by visiting Food Standards Agency News and Alerts

Visit the Food Standards Agency Subscribe to News and Alerts page