In a Food and Drug Administration report available on its website, the agency said a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado violated food safety regulations.
The inspection report, which is redacted and has been reported on by several news outlets, stated that Taylor Farms Colorado Inc. did not implement sanitation preventative control, monitoring, corrective action and verification procedures. The report also indicates that the company did not have sanitation control monitoring, corrective action and verification records and did not conduct operations under conditions and controls necessary to minimize the potential for contamination of food.
In the report, the FDA stated that Taylor Farms of Colorado’s “Processed Vegetables Hazard Analysis” did not identify a preventative control for the recontamination of environmental pathogens.
“According to firm management, this food safety plan is used for all processed vegetables at this location, including slivered onions. Slivered onions are exposed to the environment from the peel step to the finished packaging step,” the FDA report stated.
The report stated: “The product does not undergo any lethal treatments for biological hazards, and it is still considered ready-to-eat and exposed to the environment.”
The report states on inspection dates Oct. 28, 2024, and Nov. 4, 2024, and Nov. 5, 2024, the facility had several areas that could support pathogenic growth on food and nonfood contact surfaces and the production rooms in the facility were maintained at a temperature that supports the growth of pathogenic organisms.
“For example, pooling water was observed near the [REDACTED] cutting area. This area tested positive for Listeria spp. on 1/26/2024 and 1/30/2024 and is considered a non-food contact surface,” the report stated. “More pooling water was observed on the floor and equipment [REDACTED] that are not food contact surfaces.”
The report lists several redacted nonfood areas that tested positive for Listeria spp. and that corrective action procedures in the facility do not address actions to take to reduce the likelihood of the pathogen’s presence in the future.
The FDA report indicated Taylor Farms of Colorado’s third-party lab found a positive test result on Jan. 28, 2024, and a follow-up test indicated a positive result. The FDA redacted some of the details but indicated that a follow-up test was not completed.
The FDA investigators reportedly observed numerous pieces of equipment with apparent biofilm and large amounts of food debris present after post-operation cleaning. And a post-operation on Nov. 5, 2024, the company entered a “pass” for an inspection on food contact surfaces that were not visually clean and should have been marked “fail,” according to investigators.
“Both food contact surfaces mentioned above had apparent biofilm and/or food debris present on 11/5/2024 that could be placed in products that share these food contact surfaces,” the investigation stated. “This is evidenced by the firm’s recent compliant [sic] on 9/23/2024, a customer received the finished product that should only have green peppers, and onions were present.”
During inspections on Oct. 28, 2024, to Oct. 31, 2024, investors said several food contact surfaces had food debris present after a multi-step sanitation process. FDA investigators observed lettuce, peppers and celery on the production line.
The FDA report also indicated the production aprons inside the handwashing sink and comingled with the handwashing station. An FDA inspector also observed employees only sanitizing gloved hands after touching unsanitary surfaces and resumed touching the ready-to-eat food and food contact surfaces, according to the report.
“Employees were not observed removing gloves, washing hands, and donning new gloves,” the report stated. “According to firm management, it is common practice for employees to only use hand sanitizer stations in the production areas.”
