I do not always read the warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but this one that went to an Asian food processor and distributor based in Brooklyn, New York caught my eye.
On December 9, FDA’s Philadelphia district office sent a letter to New Yung Wah Trading Company in Brooklyn notifying the owners that agency inspectors had allegedly found “significant violations” of Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for manufacturing, packing, or holding human food at the company’s warehouse in McKees Rocks, PA.
In particular, FDA stated that inspectors had noted an apparently active rodent nest in a box of thawing meat, rodent carcasses along three walls of the facility, gnaw holes and rodent excreta in food cartons, and that “birds were observed flying through the facility and landing and defecating on stored food products.”
In addition, the letter stated that the firm failed: to use rodenticides to prevent contamination of food, food-contact surfaces and food packaging; to have properly installed and maintained plumbing to provide adequate floor drainage in the warehouse; to close up pest-access areas, and to remove litter and waste that may attract pests, among other allegations.