The UK Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published recall 2610-0025 on 6 October 2026. It concerns specified ASDA men’s hiking boots and shoes, not every item of hiking footwear or every product containing a fluorinated material. OPSS classified the risk as serious and recorded a recall from end users. Testing identified per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), above the permitted regulatory limit. The notice states that the products do not meet the requirements of the UK REACH Regulations 2008.

The Product Identity Is the Operational Boundary

The notice identifies five article numbers across khaki and grey footwear. The khaki Hiker Boot appears under 1100226294 and 1100245442; the khaki Hiker Shoe under 1100243431. The grey Hiker Boot is 1100264858, and the grey Hiker Shoe is 1100226297. Each article number has several barcodes in the official notice. A product name and colour may help an initial search, but a decision about a physical item should refer back to the article number and barcode in the original OPSS table.

For example, OPSS lists barcode 5059202354010 among the codes for khaki Hiker Boot article 1100226294. That single code is an illustration, not a substitute for the complete list in the same row. If a stock system stores only a generic description such as “men's hiking shoe”, a failed text search is not enough to clear the item. Check the physical label and reconcile purchase and order records with the published identifiers.

This distinction matters for both directions of error. A company could miss an affected unit if its stock system records a different marketing description. It could also sweep unrelated stock into the recall merely because it shares a brand, colour, or material description. The published list defines the scope of this particular recall. It does not certify the safety of products outside the list, and it does not show that those other products are affected.

How to Read the Earlier Test Result

ASDA says the product passed required tests when shipped, while subsequent testing found that it may contain PFAS above the permitted limit. ASDA also says that no safety incidents have been reported. Those statements describe a testing sequence and the known incident record; they do not reverse the current recall. OPSS is explicit that testing identified PFAS, including PFOA, above the regulatory limit, and its notice sets out the corrective action.

The public material does not supply a concentration for each footwear model, an individual exposure assessment, or a finding about the precise point in the supply chain at which the problem arose. A conclusion about all PFAS-containing shoes, or a numerical estimate of consumer exposure, would go beyond the evidence in this notice. The useful business inference is narrower: pre-shipment test records and later findings need to connect to the same product identity. An article number, barcode, supplier batch, test report and sales record should be easy to reconcile when a new finding changes the required action. This is a traceability recommendation, not a claim that the notice creates a new universal data-field requirement.

Action for Owners and Businesses

OPSS tells owners of an affected product to stop using it immediately and return it to the nearest ASDA store for a full refund; no receipt is required. Businesses holding or distributing potentially affected goods should compare their records with the complete official barcode list, identify the stock and orders that match, and then address those goods according to their role and the recall information. The absence of reported incidents is not a reason to keep selling an item that matches the recall.

The headline establishes a risk signal. The article and barcode table establish the execution boundary. Reading both prevents the earlier test result from obscuring a later recall and prevents a specific notice from being expanded into an unsupported claim about an entire category.

Sources: OPSS recall 2610-0025; ASDA’s recall statement.

Greenark Certification (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (绿色方舟（深圳）认证有限公司)