A Brooklyn fish processing plant was ordered to shut down due to Listeria....Listeria that never seemed to go away, even after the established changed ownership. However, according to this report, the new and old ownership failed to take sufficient corrective actions.
We have seen in numerous cases, that once Listeria gains a foothold in a facility, the best you can do is control it...and that takes a lot of work. According to a prominent lawyer website report, FDA had found Listeria in the facility 48 times over a 6 year period...presumably the same strain.
Even used equipment can harbor Listeria for years. To rid used equipment of Listeria, intense detail cleaning is needed. For a plant, detailed cleaning to the point of pathogen free can be a bit more difficult (drains, cracks in floors, etc).
Listeria is not the only pathogen that can be a problematic environmental pathogen. In 2008, Mars Pet Food closed a facility after a restart failed after two recalls due to Salmonella. It will be interesting to see if after the Sunland Food plant purchase, whether that facility will have ongoing issues.
Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/judge-shuts-brooklyn-fish-processing-plant-article-1.1740508
Judge shuts down Brooklyn fish processing plant
A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of Brooklyn fish processing plant New York City Fish, which has been plagued for years by life-threatening Listeria bacteria.
BY John Marzulli
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, March 31, 2014, 1:10 PM
A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of a Brooklyn fish processing plant that has been plagued for years by life-threatening Listeria bacteria.
Judge Roslynn Mauskopf stuck a harpoon in New York City fish, granting the government's request for a permanent injunction against the plant located on Chester St. in Brownsville, which distributes smoked salmon, mackerel and herring.
Mauskopf held a bench trial last summer and determined that New York City Fish's operators had taken insufficient corrective action after federal inspectors found that food had been prepared and packaged under unsanitary condition where it "may be contaminated by filth," according to papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Inspectors had conducted six inspections at the plant between 2006 and 2012 when it operated as New York Fish, when the Listeria bacteria was detected. An inspection in February 2013, when the facility was renamed New York City Fish by new ownership, found many of the unsanitary conditions persisted.
More than half of the current employees of N.Y.C. Fish were previously employed by N.Y. Fish, and there is no evidence that they have been provided with training sufficient to ensure compliance with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Mauskopf wrote in the decision.
New York City Fish's lawyer Stephen Foreht said that his clients hired an expert last year to fix the problems raised by the feds. "To date, all of the listeria tests have been negative," Foreht said. "We intend to comply with the court's order and to reopen quickly."
Listeria is a food-borne bacteria which can cause serious medical complications for newborns and persons with impaired immune systems, according to the lawsuit filed by the government.
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