Yahoo News – by Kristina Bravo
After sickening 621 people in 29 states in an outbreak that lasted nearly a year and a half,Foster Farms finally recalled its salmonella-tainted products in July. But an unappetizing report released this week might keep consumers wary of California’s largest chicken producer.
The Natural Resources Defense Council on its website published 300 pages of USDA documents detailing health and safety violations at Foster Farm facilities across the country.
“The inspection reports include descriptions of mold growth, cockroaches, an instance of pooling caused by a skin-clogged floor drain, fecal matter and ‘Unidentified Foreign Material’ (which has its own acronym, UFM) on chicken carcasses, failure to implement required tests and sampling, metal pieces found in carcasses, and many more,” NRDC said in a statement.
The USDA’s ramped up efforts to monitor two Foster Farms facilities in California linked to the salmonella outbreak did little, according to the report. Fecal contamination stayed at almost the same rate.
In response, Foster Farms Communications Manager Ira Bill told ABC30 on Friday that the company has changed its procedures since then, adding that $75 million have been spent on improvements. (Foster Farms granted the local news station an interview, but it wasn’t allowed inside due to a “bio-security” hazard.”)
“In many cases we went into ranches and refurbished them,” Brill told ABC30. “On the lines we added additional sanitation controls. And it becomes a very expensive process. We think consumers deserve that and they should be able to buy chicken they can have confidence in.”
Foster Farms also now boast a 5 percent salmonella rate, far lower than the 25 percent industry average.
However, the NRDC is still skeptical. Jonathan Kaplan, who heads the group’s Food and Agriculture program, said that Foster Farms remains unclear about its use of antibiotics. (Recently, Perdue announced that 95 percent of its chickens would no longer be treated with the drug.)
“My position is that Foster Farms, having sickened a lot of people and spread antibiotic resistant bacteria all over the country, now really has an obligation to be responsible and to demonstrate what they’re doing to ensure it’s not going to happen again,” Kaplan told Salon. “And we’re not seeing that.”
http://news.yahoo.com/feces-mold-cockroaches-found-foster-farms-plants-across-164458537.html
“Foster Farms also now boast a 5 percent salmonella rate, far lower than the 25 percent industry average”
25% is the AVERAGE???
And they don’t consider THAT unacceptable?
I hate to have to give up chicken but that 25% Average standard for Salmonella contamination scares the living hell out of me. Growing up in the 50s and 60s we didn’t have these problems and folks used the same unwashed cutting board for meat and vegetables…and I don’t remember anyone in my family getting sick from it. What has gone wrong??
factory farming didn’t exist back then chickens were raised on chicken farms with coops and fencing there was not to far from where I lived. Back then many were mom and pop farms and I got to see how they processed them all by hand.
The entire factory food system only employs mexicans who haven’t
figured out you wash your hands after you go to the bathroom.
Its that simple really.
This is why we raise all our own meat on our homestead.
I live in the tropics,S Pasific. And the rate is lower than 25% in the open market. And chickens can be bought live on the other side of the road. Oh wait we get to watch them kill.pluck, and prepare them live here. Before heading home. Never mind.
Thank god for Foster Farms chicken. I live in California and have been eating their chicken for years. I had all the recall lot numbers on my chickens and I had like 8 family packs. None were bad….none. They are being set up by the FDA and their competitor over at Walmart. Walmart sells their chicken for $3.19 a pound. Total rip off. Foster sells chicken for .69 cents per pound. They are jealous and want to put Foster out of business. Every piece of food I buy at Walmart makes me totally sick but never are they recalled. Mega corporations will stop at nothing to monopolize everything.
Stop eating concentration camp chicken, beef and pork. Whatever is being fed to those animals to make them fat is making people fat and sick. Del Taco chicken burritos may taste good and are inexpensive but they will kill you faster than a bullet. Stay away from that garbage.