Washington Post’s Kimberly Kindy reported last week that a New York-based consumer advocacy group posted more than 300 pages of USDA reports on their Web site Thursday that show widespread health and safety violations at Foster Farms plants across the nation, including mold growth, fecal contamination and cockroaches.
The Natural Resources Defense Council reviewed the Department of Agriculture reports and identified more than 200 violations at the two Foster Farms plants in California that the National Centers for Disease Control linked to an antibiotic-resistant outbreak of salmonella that has sickened at least 634 people, the records show.
Jonathan Kaplan, director of NRDC’s food and agriculture program, said the group was most surprised that the rate of violations for fecal contamination — a common source of salmonella — remained at almost the same levels at the two California plants, even after USDA had stepped up enforcement and oversight.