A food company that distributes products to Asian restaurants was recently cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for numerous violations after they found rodents and other pests in a warehouse.
Inspectors found less-than-sanitary conditions including live and dead rodents and birds landing and defecating on stored food products.
During an inspection of the warehouse they found:
- Rodents nesting in a plastic-lined box in a cooler that had rib meat thawing on top of melons.
- Four dead rodents.
- Birds flying around inside of the warehouse.
- A pallet of pineapples that had been gnawed on by rodents.
- Rodent droppings in a cooler.
- A path of rodent droppings leading to a hole in a bag of flour.
- Rodent droppings, urine and nests in and around bags of MSG.
- Workers who were smoking while handling food.
Inspectors were also concerned that rodent poisons were being used without taking precautions to keep it from contaminating food.
The company was cited earlier this year for shipping fish, chicken and pork at unsafe temperatures. These thawing meats were dripping onto other food, causing cross contamination.
This apparent disregard for human health cannot be tolerated and this is a great example of why the job of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is so important.
