FDA cites unsanitary conditions at cantaloupe operation

10/03/2012 10:45:00 AM
Coral Beach

The packing shed, which does not have walls on the north and south sides, also had porous food contact surfaces such as wood and carpeting on the pack line, Waters reported, making it virtually impossible for the surfaces to be sanitized.

Water lines to the pack shed were also problematic.

“The processing water line is not constructed in such a manner as to prevent food contamination … while cantaloupes were being processed, I observed the pipe used to supply well water into the dump tank and spray nozzles over the conveyer belt were leaking and appeared to have an accumulation of rust. This water comes into direct contact with the cantaloupe as they are traveling along the processing line,” the report states.

The FDA inspector also found Chamberlain and his employees were not monitoring the effective levels of the chlorine sanitizer in the water in the concrete dump tank of the cantaloupe processing line. Chamberlain could not provide any records regarding the water sanitizing process.

Reports from Kentucky and Indiana health departments regarding salmonella illnesses in people who had eaten cantaloupe from the farm apparently spurred the FDA’s inspection of Chamberlain Farms. Kentucky health officials went public with information Aug. 17 when they announced two people were dead from salmonella infections linked to cantaloupes from a farm in southwestern Indiana.

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What happeneed to all of the third party audits?

Krogers audits?

Walmart audits?

The retailers realize the 3rd party audits are only a one day snapshot and is not worth much, but audits are costly to the growers.
The disturbing fact in this and other cases is, FDA was there, had seen the filthy operation, knew the product will hurt consumers and didn’t used their power they have now with the FSMA law since July 3, 2011 to shut down the place and keep the contaminated food out of the market place until the testing was done.

It looks like only Michael Taylor from FDA knows what’s in FSMA but not the inspectors out in the field: Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods said: “Rules took effect July 3, 2011. The first rule strengthens the FDA’s ability to prevent potentially unsafe food from entering commerce by allowing the agency to administratively detain food the agency believes has been produced under unsanitary or unsafe conditions.”
“This authority strengthens significantly the FDA’s ability to keep potentially harmful food from reaching U.S. consumers,”

As we can see almost daily on different recalls. FDA is not using the mandate given and to protect the consumers and a whole industry from being hurt. Recalls are not only costly for everybody in the supply chain, good producers can’t sell their product either.

when are the retailers stop buying from these small insigificant growers who give the
cheapest prices to retailers to reel them in? When these shippers have no inspections in
place that's the first sign something is wrong. It gives the rest of melon growers a bad
name.

Barry any point of sale should also be held responsible for the well being of consumers that pay them money.

Any person or business in that supply chain who received money in exchange for food or services associated with that specific commodity, should be held accountable for anything related to the food.

If that food made the customer feel happier more power to them for the return sales and the viral propaganda, however if they became ill or worst dead, shame on them for foregoing the extra step to ensure that it complied with 100% GAP from farm to fork.

There are levels and there are levels.

Growers, shippers, food service suppliers, restaurants, retailers & institutions.

Unfortunately human lives will be the price to pay before this gets any better.

Growers/packers/shippers all need to be held accountable that they strictly follow good growing practices, GMP's, and have established SOP's that reflect today's necessary food safety standards,,,,,,,,,and document that these procedures are strictly adhered to. Just as importantly, all company's procurring product need to be responsible for doing their due dilligence and making sure all suppliers of product they use have current, documented, and implemented food safety programs. It needs to be a shared performance (between seller and buyer) in regards to food safety, a common denominator that precedes price, transportation miles, buy local pressure, or any other variables. Food safety first and foremost.

Responsible packers use third party audits and inspections as a tool for evaluating
and improving their operations. Irresponsible packers view passing an audit as an
end in itself and operate differently the other 364 days of the year.

I don't want the FDA closing down facilities, that's too much power given to a
government agency and what we all agree is a clear and present danger now, may
morph into something not so clear in the future, but I sure do want somebody to have
the power to severely punish irresponsible packers like Chamberlain Farms.

Chamberlain farms may be blacklisted by retailers, but besides losing business, the
principals of that operation need to feel real pain for allowing those conditions to
exist. There is absolutely no excuse.

Chamberlain Farms has more then 500 acres melon fields. I don't consider them small. Same with Burch Farms and Jensen's. The problem we have seen is the same, dirty and filthy conditions, no recordkeeping how preventions is done because there wasn't anything to record, no labeling and a traceback system in place, to get the contaminated stuff out of the supply chain. This is what's hurt and will hurt in the future the industry. We can wait for the next incident if it's produce or any other product. All recalls boil down to the mentioned reasons. In the Chamberlain case the additional problem was FDA didn't used their power to shut the facility down, seeing the problem, writing it down and let them send contaminated melons for days into the market. They didn't have to wait until the test came back and confirm what they have seen and documented.

Unacceptable that FDA did not immediatly stop operations including shipping at this facility when finding like these are present. This is no different than finding arsenic or some kind of poison, whether intentional or not, operations have to stop immediately. These are literaly poisons that kill and can kill many at a time. In this day and age with technology and all, this is very hard to believe.

You left out the most important level and that is the diligent consumer. I've been in Produce areas of a lot of stores, and I've seen customers cough, handle, sneeze, and put back produce on the table. How sanitary is that. Do they wash the fruit when they get it home? What about knives that are used to peel and then slice without washing. Just thought I'd ask.

The article mainly points out the FDA failure to protect the consumer. If it's telling of
anything is that the FDA as any other regulatory agency to divert the heat it will overstep,
mandate and shut businesses down to show they are protecting consumers.

The problem I see in making consumers the responsible party is that while they we as
consumers must be careful, as a business you don't want to see yourself in court against a
consumer. In the banking industry there is an old saying, "Never go to court against
grandma. Even if you are right, jurors will only see grandma being hurt."

As organizations we must assure our customers our products are safe to consume. If
retailers were really serious about food safety - they should have a food safety department
that is constantly visiting their vendors unannounced to conduct their own safety audits
granted there is a set of guidelines everyone knows about - oh right, PTI is here.