FDA Warning Letter - MN Warehouse with Egregious GMP Violations

FDA issued a Warning Letter to the owner of a warehouse facility in Minnesota due to egregious GMP violations.  Hard to imagine food being stored in these conditions.

1. Did not take effective measures to exclude pests from your packing and holding areas to protect against contamination of food on the premises by pests - dead rodents, gnaw marks and holes in product, rodent droppings and live birds.
2. Did not maintain your building, fixtures, and other physical facilities of your plant in a clean and sanitary condition and in repair adequate to prevent food from becoming adulterated - leaky roof with damp/wet product below, product spillage in multiple locations
3. Did not store food under conditions that protect against biological, chemical, and physical contamination - improper chemical storage with the potential for contamination of food, refrigated food stored at ambient temperatures.
4. Failed to properly store equipment, remove litter and waste, and cut weeds and grass that may constitute an attractant, breeding place, or harborage for pests within the immediate vicinity of the plant,

FDA Warning Letter
https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm624404.htm
Gold Star Distribution., Inc. 10/19/18

FDA Warning Letter Issued to Chester, PA Warehouse - Reason...for Being Nasty

We often get questions about the safety of the food supply, and our general response is - overall, our food is safe.  But then, you read something like this and start to think otherwise.   This was an FDA Warning Letter issued to a warehouse / distribution company in Chester, PA.    If you like to look at the outside of the location, you can see the location  on Google maps from 2012 but there are more recent pics on line.

 Observations directly from inspection notes:

• firm did not have running water in either the ladies or men’s restrooms used by employees. Further, the toilets and hand washing sinks were not functioning, and there are no other sinks in your facility.  used buckets, filled with water, to flush the toilets and wash their hands after using the restrooms. You informed our investigator that these buckets are prefilled with water at the hose bib where the water supply line was cut and placed in the restrooms for immediate use and others stored outside the restrooms as reserves to be used later. Further, you informed our investigator that these buckets are used interchangeably for toilet flushing and handwashing and that the buckets are not cleaned or sanitized.
• a wooden desk with dirt and green stains on it, being used as a food preparation table. You informed our investigator that the desk is not cleaned with detergent or sanitizer, and is sometimes wiped down with a paper towel and water from a bucket in the restroom.
• green leafy particles and brown dried debris on knives stored in a wooden desk. You informed our investigator that these knives are used to cut produce and were not cleaned after use, but are cleaned prior to being used again with a paper towel and water from a spray bottle. 
• an orange and white cat was moving freely throughout the warehouse. 
• rodent excreta pellets - multiple occurrences
• mold in coolers - multiple occurrences
• a stack of 5 pallets; a barrel; equipment, and tools that were rusted; and wood and debris were scattered within 3 feet of the west side of the facility where the trailer is located. Further, there were vines draped along the east and west walls, with high grass and weeds that engulfed the perimeter on the south, east and west.
• that the thermometer used in produce cooler #1, where you store vegetables, fruit, and other food articles, was not operational. Further, you informed our investigator that that this thermometer had never been calibrated and was not used for over ten years
• an apparent fetid odor of rot, in unrefrigerated produce cooler #3. You informed our investigator that this is where spoiled products and trash are stored, until taken to the dumpster located outside your facility. For example, a container of spoiled onions, cardboard boxes, and other foreign matter was observed scattered on the floor in the cooler. Further, you informed our investigator that produce cooler #3 has not been cleaned in years.
• an employee smoking a cigarette and grabbing onions with his bare hand from an unmarked box, to fulfill an order for a customer

  

FDA WARNING LETTER

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2016/ucm509003.htm

16-PHI-07

June 23, 2016

 

Food Warehouses - Get Ready for Some Scrutiny

Senator Chuck Schumar (D-NY) is pushing for increase regulatory attention to food warehouses due to reported unsanitary conditions in food warehouses, including rat nests, litter and other forms of untidiness.  Case in point was a warehouse in Pennsylvania, operated by a NY firm (FDA Warning Letter below), where they found rat nests, dead rats, rodent feces, and a number of other sanitary issues.

External warehouses, along with transporters (to be tackled by the transportation component of FSMA) are all part of the food chain, but have not received as much attention as the processing component - processing facilities and connected/internal warehouses.  For the food system to be safe, all components of that chain must utilize food safety practices.  Unfortunately, some of these ancillary services have not had the level of attention that they should have had.   One exception being where the warehouse had to meet 2nd party or 3rd party inspection requirements.


Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/01/12/3610616/schumer-fda-inspections/
Senator Pressures FDA To Crack Down On ‘Disgusting’ Warehouses That Supply Our Food

by Sam P.K. Collins Posted on January 12, 2015 at 11:57 am Up

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cited squalid conditions in 90 warehouses, including a Chinese food distributor that the agency found to have rodent nests, carcasses, and feces littering in its warehouse during an inspection in December.

That’s why Sen. Chuck Schumer wants the regulatory agency to up the ante and crack down on food manufacturers that cannot maintain sanitary spaces for food production. He’s calling for more frequent inspections, higher fines, and the creation of an easily searchable food database for distributors and consumers.