Congressional Seafood announced on Wednesday that it has met federal and state reporting guidelines and resumed normal operations at 12 a.m. on Thursday.
The announcement comes five days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the Jessup, Md., company “to stop processing and distributing adulterated seafood” because it failed to comply with the reporting guidelines.
After meeting with FDA officials on Wednesday, Congressional Seafood said that the FDA approved its Seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, as well as its Sanitation Standard Operating Procedure and Importer Verification Procedure requirements.
In May 2009, the FDA notified the company of its concern over inadequate documentation of certain food-handling procedures and sanitation-verification standards. Congressional Seafood said the “administrative error” was based solely on compliance with reporting guidelines and is considered a “regulatory FDA violation” not a “quality or wholesomeness violation.” The company added that it has been working since May to fix the errors.
“We realize these errors in reporting and communications have caused unnecessary inconvenience for many of our valued customers. Congressional Seafood remains committed to ensuring the highest quality and safety standards in the seafood industry,” said Stanley Pearlman, president of Congressional Seafood.
“Unfortunately our internal administrative errors have caused confusion and in some cases concern to some of our customers. We have worked nearly 15 years delivering high-quality product and service to a trusted customer based and we are been proud of our track record,” he added. “In the future, we are committed to working even harder to reestablish and strengthen that trust again as we continue to be a leading seafood supplier in the mid-Atlantic.”
Congressional Seafood said it recently established a new management structure and has been working with an FDA-approved third-party seafood inspector from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Seafood Inspection Program to conduct random audits of the company’s food-handling practices and assess its record-keeping to assure federal and state compliance. The company also has a new HACCP team in place with new leadership.
