Kaikorai Valley's Havoc Ham recalled after glitch

Havoc Ham has been recalled after a paperwork glitch.

A paperwork compliance glitch is causing havoc for an award-winning Dunedin pork producer.

Havoc Farm Pork's ham products are being recalled after a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) audit of the company's Kaikorai Valley plant last week.

MPI ordered the recall of the company's vacuum-packed whole pressed hams and packages of sliced ham when the audit revealed no record of ham cooking temperatures and cooling times.

Until last Christmas, the information was being documented as required, Havoc Farm Pork co-owner Linda McCallum-Jackson, of Waimate, said yesterday.

But that changed after the holiday break when a manager incorrectly told process workers they did not have to record the temperatures and cooling times.

Health safety rules stipulated cooked hams had to be cooled within five hours of being cooked "and ours are cooled in probably 30 minutes less than that'', Mrs McCallum-Jackson said.

She had received MPI's product recall notice late on Friday and since then had been contacting her customers to tell them about the recall.

About 50kg of ham was involved.

The recall notice tells people not to eat the ham products but also states there had been no reports of illness.

It also says the recall did not affect any other Havoc brand products.

The company had always "done everything right'' in terms of food processing, Mrs McCallum-Jackson said. And it was now fully aware of the paperwork required by MPI.

"We're doing everything we have to do.''

She was unsure when Havoc could start processing hams again, as MPI had to have proof the products were safe.

Ham samples had been sent by the company for analysis and Mrs McCallum-Jackson hoped the results would allow the ham processing operation to return to normal as soon as possible.