The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning letter to Bellisio Foods, after an inspection of the company’s Jackson, Ohio frozen seafood processing plant found “unsanitary” preparation conditions, and various other violations.
The 29 January letter, sent from the FDA’s Cincinnati office to CEO Joel Conner, alleged that, during an inspection on 27-29 November 2012, the FDA discovered serious potential contamination problems at the processing facility.
“Your frozen entrees containing shrimp are adulterated, in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health,” wrote Paul Teitell, the FDA’s Cincinnati district director.
The letter indicates that the company issued a response to charges of violations on 17 December, but the current FDA letter alleged that the response is “not adequate because the deviations observed during the inspection have not been corrected.”
The letter detailed three major violations, where the FDA charged the company did not have detailed enough plans for addressing potential contamination under the FDA’s seafood hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) regulation. The FDA also warned the company, “This letter may not list all the violations at your facility.”
The FDA demanded Bellisio respond in writing within 15 working days of receipt, and warned that failing to correct the violations could result in “seizure, injunction, and/or prosecution.”
A request via email for comment from Bellisio’s corporate headquarters in Minneapolis was not immediately returned.
