The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning letter to Chinese seafood processor Chaohu Daxin Foodstuffs earlier this year, alleging that the company had violated multiple food safety rules in the creation of its cooked crawfish products.
According to the letter, the FDA conducted an inspection of the company’s facility in Zhegao Town, Chaohu, Anhui, China, which uncovered violations of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations and the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food rule (CGMP & PC rule).
“Accordingly, your ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked crawfish products are adulterated, in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health,” the agency noted in its letter, which is dated 3 February but was not published by the government until August.
The FDA also claims Chaohu Daxin Foodstuffs did not have supply certificates for some of the shrimp it exported and could not document whether they were sourced from safe areas. The inspection also found stains and dark patches on equipment as well as cracks and crevices in a conveyer belt that came into contact with the crawfish.
Chaohu Daxin Foodstuffs sent the FDA documentation and a list of corrective actions taken, but the FDA said the response fell short of its regulatory standards.
“Your response include photographs of the conveyor belt with new parts, but the adjacent conveyor belt appears to still be stained,” the agency said of the company’s attempt to address stains and dark patches found on equipment during the inspection. “Additionally, we cannot fully evaluate your corrective actions to condensate drip because you did not provide records, such as training or sanitation records, to demonstrate your change in practices.”
The FDA has not released either the response letter or a closeout letter. The agency noted that a failure to correct the issues discovered during the inspection could lead the U.S. to refuse admission of the company’s crawfish products into the country.
