Pick up today’s edition of just about any major daily and you’ll find more than you wanted to read about food producers, and the auditors who are supposed to hold them in check, behaving poorly.  Try Stephanie Armour’s article, or this from the AP, just for starters.  The upshot is that the companies that participated in the food safety audit of Jensen Farms, the company that produced cantaloupes that have killed 31 people since August, failed miserably.  See Third Party Auditing Industry Indicted for more. 

Here are a few more examples of food companies behaving badly:

  • FDA Warning Letter to Greencore OARS LLC for the presence of Listeria in the processing facility, and for other serious food safety violations.
  • FDA Warning Letter to Jang Soo Farm Inc. d/b/a “Rainier Sprouts”:  During the inspection, FDA collected two samples — consisting of various mung beans, rodent excreta pellets, rodent hair, old nesting material, and rodent-gnawed packaging material — from your facility that confirmed the presence and activity of rodents and insects. Our investigators documented insanitary conditions and practices that contribute directly or indirectly to possible contamination of your sprouts with filth and pathogens. Accordingly, sprouts grown in your facility are adulterated within the meaning of Section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(4)] because they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health.”
  • FDA Warning Letter to Homeneeds Samamish, Inc.: FDA’s laboratory tests of samples collected from your warehouse and various lots of food product confirmed the findings of rodent excreta pellets (REPs), rodent hair, and rodent urine stained and gnawed packaging throughout your facility.
  • FDA Warning Letter to Gulfish LP: Failure to have a HACCP plan, which is incumbent upon seafood processors.
  • FDA Warning Letter to Li Da Seafood Trading Inc.:  Failure to have a seafood processing HACCP plan, as well as failure to monitor temperature and sanitation, failures in recordkeeping, and a failure to do just about everything necessary to protect consumers from dangerous bacteria and viruses. 
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Photo of Drew Falkenstein Drew Falkenstein

Drew Falkenstein joined Marler Clark in January, 2004 and has concentrated his practice in representing victims of foodborne illness. He has litigated nationwide against some of the biggest food corporations in the world, including Dole, Kellogg’s, and McDonald’s.  He has worked on landmark…

Drew Falkenstein joined Marler Clark in January, 2004 and has concentrated his practice in representing victims of foodborne illness. He has litigated nationwide against some of the biggest food corporations in the world, including Dole, Kellogg’s, and McDonald’s.  He has worked on landmark cases that have helped shape food safety policy, HACCP protocol, and consumer rights, such as the E. coli outbreak in fresh spinach in 2006 and the 2008 Peanut Corporation of America outbreak of Salmonella. A frequent speaker for the not-for-profit organization Outbreak, Inc, Mr. Falkenstein travels the country to address public and environmental health organizations as well as food safety meetings and annual educational conferences.  He speaks on the intersection of law and public health, and addresses companies on how to prevent food borne illness outbreaks.