A U.S. Federal Court judge has ordered the shutdown of a California seafood processor after more than seven years of sanitary violations cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The judge entered a consent degree of permanent injunction on 1 December against Neptune Manufacturing, a company in Los Angeles that produces and distributes smoked and pickled seafood products, including herring, steelhead trout, turbot/halibut, whitefish, salmon and mackerel.
The decree forces the company and its owners, Alexander Goldring, Peter Oyrekh and Semyon Krutovsky, to stop operations “until they have taken specific steps to bring their operation into compliance with the (U.S.) Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,” according to the FDA.
While no illnesses have been reported to date in connection with any Neptune products, the FDA cited multiple sanitary violations discovered in inspections dating back to 2006. Among the problems, FDA officials said they found Listeria bacteria and “a failure to control for Clostridium botulinum,” the organism connected to botulism.
“When a company and its owners repeatedly violate the same food safety procedures, their failure to improve their processes and clean up their facility endangers the public,” said Melinda K. Plaisier, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “The FDA will take necessary action to protect the food supply from adulteration.”
