The antibiotic known as Lincomycin is supposed to be used to treat only serious bacterial infections when other medicines are not an option. It should not be found in the kidney tissue of a recently slaughtered veal calf. But, according to a Feb. 19 warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s New York District office, Lincomycin was found in the kidney tissue of a veal calf sold by Fonda, NY-based MMT Cattle Inc. FDA WarningThe company allegedly sold the calf for slaughter as food on June 3, 2014, and kidney tissue from the animal was subjected to laboratory testing. The testing discovered the antibiotic, for which FDA has not established a safe level. In the warning letter, FDA District Director Ronald M. Pace wrote that the presence of an unsafe level of a new animal drug means that meat from the animal is adulterated under federal law. FDA inspected MMT Cattle last October. “Our investigation also found that you hold animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food supply,” Pace wrote. He also stated that the cattle company failed to maintain complete treatment records and held expired drugs in its inventory. Across the country in Bell, CA, H & T Seafood Inc. was also the recipient of a warning letter from FDA, this one sent on Feb. 11 from the agency’s Los Angeles District office in Long Beach. After H & T was visited by FDA inspectors in January, the agency stated that inspectors had found serious violations of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) regulations, making its frozen Tilapia Fillets and frozen Chum Salmon portions adulterated under federal law. Alonza E. Cruse, FDA’s LA District Director, informed the seafood company that it did not have product specifications for the fishery products it imports and did not implement certain affirmative HACCP steps. In each letter, FDA requested that the companies provide written responses detailing steps taken to bring the facilities into compliance with food-safety laws and regulations, to correct violations cited in the letters, and to prevent their recurrence. Recipients of these warning letters have 15 working days from receipt to outline specific steps they have taken to come into compliance with the law.