This week, federal regulators ordered Murray’s Chicken to cease processing at its South Fallsburg, NY poultry plant.
Steve Gold, Murray’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service allowed the company to ship chicken packaged Monday but ordered it otherwise closed until it corrects “facility issues.”
“It has nothing to do with the food safety of the product,” said Gold. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure our employees get back to work,” reported the Record Online.
Neither Gold nor Brian Mabry, an FSIS spokesman, would identify the specific issues causing the shutdown, but Mabry said FSIS’ concerns are directly related to food safety.
Mabry said the agency sent Murray’s a written warning in January concerning “[S]almonella controls.” The concerns centered on Murray’s ability to identify and minimize contamination by pathogens such as Salmonella.
FSIS also issued a notice in April about sanitation concerns and noncompliance with FSIS regulations, said Mabry. Following the April notice, the agency issued another notice Monday telling Murray to suspend operations.
“While FSIS is sympathetic to the economic implications of the suspension, our primary concern is to fulfill our regulatory responsibility to protect the public health,” said Mabry.
Gold said he was not aware of any FSIS issues with food contamination. The company frequently tests on its own and just passed a USDA test for Salmonella on July 23, he said.
“Either you pass or you fail,” he said. “We passed.”
Gold said Murray’s has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars addressing ongoing FSIS complaints about its aging plant. Because of that effort, owner Murray Bresky and company officials were shocked when they received the shutdown notice, he said.
“For some reason, it came to a head yesterday,” he said.
Murray’s 350 employees process about 35,000 chickens a day at the South Fallsburg plant.
Fallsburg Supervisor Steve Vegliante is confident the plant will reopen shortly. “I fed my children Murray’s chicken on Monday night, and will continue to do so,” he said.
E. coli bacteria have already shown some resistance to gentamicin, a heat-stable antibiotic. And sulfamethazine, a sulfonamide antibacterial, is one of the most common animal drugs used on dairy farms.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not established any tolerance level for gentamicin in the edible tissues of veal calves. But when checking up on a bob veal calf sold by the Robert L. Beckman dairy farm at Cassadaga, NY, tissue samples returned residues of gentamicin in the liver, kidney, and muscle tissue of the animal.
In a July 9 warning letter to Beckman, FDA said the presence of the drug in the edible tissue of the animal causes the food to be adulterated under federal law.
“Our investigation also found that you hold animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food supply,” FDA said in the letter.
The agency told Beckman his treatment records are not be properly maintained, and the dairy farm is using Gentamicin Sulfate in ways not provided for on its label. Such “extra label” use of an animal drug is allowed only under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.
FDA said Beckman “administered gentamicin sulfate to a bob veal calf without following the animal species as stated in the approved labeling.”
Meanwhile, a Maple Park, IL dairy farm received a warning letter from the FDA about its alleged misuse of the animal drug sulfamethazine. Owners Brian and Barbara Hill sold a dairy cow for slaughter as food, according to FDA, that had 2.649 parts per million (PPM) of sulfamethazine residue in the liver tissue.
The FDA established tolerance of 0.1 ppm for residues of sulfamethazine in the uncooked edible tissue of cattle.
In the letter, FDA said the Hills “did not use sulfamethazine boluses as directed by the approved labeling.”
The label instructions for the drug clearly state that it is not to be used for female dairy cattle 20 months of age or older.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) did the tissue sampling for both the bob calf and the dairy cow. Some fear animal antibiotics in food are making some antibiotics in humans ineffective.
Each dairy farm was given 15 working days to respond to its FDA warning letter.
Fish processing and general sanitation problems plague BCS African Wholesale Food Supply in Brooklyn Park, MN, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a July 20 warning letter.
BCS advertises itself as a direct importer/wholesaler of African foods. In addition to its food business, it offers international phone cards, shipping barrels, and money gram transfer services.
Both FDA and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture inspected the wholesale foods facility over several dates last March and April. FDA said there were “serious violations” of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and federal code of regulation.
“Accordingly, your uneviscertated smoked/dried fish (including Pike, Jack Cavalli, Bony fish and Kangbe fish) smoked fish and seafood (including smoked Herring Bloaters, smoked Barracuda, smoked Catfish, smoked Pike), and other various frozen and fresh fish (including snails, Red Snapper, and Titus sardines) are adulterated in that they have prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health,” wrote Ann Adams, FDA’s acting Minneapolis district director.
Adams said FDA inspectors also found “serious deviations” involving palm, oil, rice, beans, and other packaged food products. Among FDA’s concerns are sanitation problems at the facility including:
-Food debris is collected on a metal saw used to portion fish. Food contact surfaces must be kept clean.
-The hand sink was clogged and slow draining. Hand washing facilities are supposed to be maintained.
-Gaskets on freezers were missing or damaged. Warehouse walls contain debris. Building and fixtures are supposed to be maintained.
-Insects were gaining entry through the wall and floor. Pests are supposed to be excluded from food plants.
-There was a food buildup from the palm oil rebottling process. Food contact surfaces are to be kept clean.
African Wholesale was told it needed a seafood HACCP plan for each kind of fish or fish product it produces. FDA is especially concerned about control of Clostridium botulinum, which causes deadly botulism, for the “bony fish,” crayfish, and tilapia the food company imports from Nigeria and China.
FDA gave the Minnesota company 15 working days to respond to the issues raised in the warning letter.
Another pet food recall is in the works because of possible Salmonella contamination.
This time it is the Procter & Gamble Company that is recalling cat food. The company’s Iams brand is involved. Recalled are:
-Iams Veterinary Formulas Feline Renal 5.5 lbs, UPC 0 19014 21405 1.
-Iams Veterinary Formulas Feline Renal 5.5 lbs., UPC 0 19014 21405 1.
The lots codes are 01384174B4 and 01384174B2.
This product is available by prescription through veterinary clinics throughout the U.S.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recalled cat food.
An analysis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified a positive Salmonella result on the lot codes. Lot codes can be found in the lower right corner on the back of the bag.
Consumers who have purchased dry cat food with these codes should discard it. People handling dry pet food can become infected with Salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with surfaces exposed to this product.
People exposed to Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever.
Salmonella can result in more serious ailments including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation and urinary tract symptoms.
Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
Pets with Salmonella infections may have decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, pets may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
For further information or a product refund call Procter & Gamble toll-free at 877-894-4458 (Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST).
The conversions will center around three brands: Jim ’N Nicks Bar-B-Q, Truffles Cafe and Wok Hay, Ruby Tuesday spokesman Rick Johnson said. The company acquired the now two-unit Wok Hay Asian bistro concept three years ago, and it has purchased development rights for the 26-unit regional Jim’N Nick’s Southern barbecue chain and three-unit upscale-casual Truffles brand.
via Ruby Tuesday to convert some units to other brands | Nation’s Restaurant News.
Four years ago, there were almost no recalls of beef for E. coli O157:H7 contamination and later the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported on a big drop in illnesses from the pathogen.
Just a year later, in 2007, the number of E. coli O157:H7 recalls, outbreaks, and illnesses exploded. Beef recalled for E. coli O157:H7 contamination totaled almost 34 million pounds in 2007.
The spike in E. coli contamination sent regulators, researchers, and the industry all out looking for the cause. Just over 7 million pounds of recalled beef was added to the total in 2008 to bring the total to over 40 million for just two years.
Then last year, the levels fell back to Earth with just over 1.1 million pounds of E. coli-contaminated beef recalled in 2009.
That brings us to 2010. On one hand, this year’s total beef recalls for E. coli total over 6.1 million to date, bringing the four-year total to over 48 million pounds.
However, the largest recalls in this year’s total were for 5.764 million pounds of beef from California’s Huntington Meat Packing Co. last Jan. 18 and Feb. 12. At the time, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said the Huntington recalls were associated with an ongoing criminal investigation.
Since the big Huntington recalls last winter, there have only been another half dozen E coli-related recalls totaling 389,476 pounds of beef and bison. Only 105,476 pounds have been recalled this summer, including 66,776 of bison from Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Natural Meats.
E. coli O157:H7 knows no season, but is a season-peaking phenomenon. Food safety attorney Bill Marler knows this not only from his law practice, but from the research he has done on the subject. He points to these studies into E. coli “seasonality in humans.”
-A review of E. coli O157:H7 diarrhea in the U.S. by Slutsker et al (1997) found that E. coli O157:H7 was isolated most frequently from patients during the summer months.
-Results from an epidemiologic review of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in the U.S. (1982-2002) showed that outbreaks involving ground beef peaked in summer months (Rangel et al, 2005).
-In a review of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections in the US from 1983-2002 revealed that these infections also were most frequent during the summer (Brooks et al, 2005).
-In Scotland, HUS and E. coli O157:H7 infections peaked in patients under 15 years of age in July/August, followed by a plateau from June to September (Douglas et al, 1997). The prevalence in Scottish beef cattle at slaughter was found to be highest during the winter, but the concentration of E. coli O157:H7 (number of bacteria shed in cattle feces) was highest during the warmer months (Ogden et al, 2004).
Marler also found support for “seasonality in ruminants” in these findings:
-Numerous studies in cattle indicate that fecal shedding of E. coli O157:H7 is typically low in the winter, increases in the spring, peaks during the summer and tapers off in the fall (Edrington et al, 2006; Hancock et al, 2001; Hussein et al, 2005, etc.).
-Barkocy-Gallagher et al (2003) found that the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle feces peaked in the summer, and prevalence on hides (a known risk factor for beef contamination) was highest from spring through fall.
-A survey of ground beef samples in the US showed that they were 3 times more likely to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 from June – September (Chapman, et al 2001).
-A survey in the UK found that the majority of retail meats that tested positive for E. coli O157:H7 were collected between May and September.
Among the reasons Marler thinks there are seasonal differences in the prevalence of O157:H7 in both humans and cattle are:
-Differences in handling and cooking food, or differences in consumption patterns during the summer, especially ground beef (outdoor BBQs, picnics, summer camps).
-Higher prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle feces and hides entering the slaughterhouse.
-More outbreaks linked to swimming pools, recreational water, and agriculture fairs during the summer.
-Speculation that temperature may affect shedding or survival in feces (warmer months promoting survival and/or growth of E. coli O157:H7).
-Studies by Edrington et al (2006 and 2008) suggested that day length and effects on hormones such as melatonin secretion from the gastrointestinal tracts might be the underlying mechanism for seasonality in cattle. The authors hypothesized that the seasonal variation is a result of physiological responses within the host animal to changing day-length. Hormones have been shown to play a role in the regulation of bacterial populations and host immunity.
This is why there is so much interest in monitoring what is actually happening on the E. coli front during the summer months. Fewer recalls are usually going to translate into fewer outbreaks and illnesses.
This summer’s trend line is pretty positive, according to Drew Falkenstein, one of Marler’s associates.
“Compared to recent years, only two summer recalls totaling just under 40,000 pounds of product–particularly when the recalls were not known to be associated with any illnesses–is progress indeed,” Falkenstein says.
