A seafood processing company in Texas was warned about ongoing problems meeting federal seafood HACCP regulations in the latest batch of posted warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Gladys’ Seafood Inc. of Buda, TX, was told in a June 25, 2015, warning letter that FDA inspectors had found numerous violations of the seafood HACCP rules during a visit to the facility this past April. FDA WarningThe agency told the company that its HACCP plan for pasteurized canned crabmeat was adequate for controlling pathogen growth or toxin formation, including Clostridium botulinum. “Specifically, this critical limit does not ensure the products were held at or below an ambient or internal temperature of 40°F throughout transit; or if the transit time was less than four hours, that the internal temperature of the product at the time of receipt was 40°F or less. This is a repeat observation from our letter dated January 22, 2014,” the letter noted. Further, FDA told the seafood company that monitoring records were not established for truck temperatures or internal product temperatures of the product being received nor were temperatures monitored in the trailer where the product was occasionally stored. Also, the firm has not reevaluated its current HACCP plan since June 2013, according to the warning letter. If the cited violations are not promptly corrected, FDA’s letter noted that the agency “may take further action to seize your product(s) and/or enjoin your firm from operating.” FDA sent a warning letter to Backwoods Food Mfg. Co. Inc. of Tahlequah, OK, on Sept. 15, 2015, stating that the manufacturer of acidified foods needed to comply with federal regulations. Following a March 2015 inspection of the facility, inspectors noted inadequate pH monitoring, no production and processing records and no written recall procedure, FDA’s letter stated. Specifically, production records for the firm’s Black Bean and Corn Salsa revealed that the company “did not measure and document the critical control measurement of finished equilibrium pH value for each batch you manufactured …,” the agency stated. A response letter in April indicated the company would begin measuring and recording a finished equilibrium pH value for each individual batch, but FDA stated that evidence was not provided to support that the new procedure had been implemented. Drug residue in the kidney tissues of a dairy cow was the subject of the FDA warning letter sent Sept. 25, 2015, to Jerry Ethington Dairy in Chandler, AZ. FDA stated that an inspection of the dairy in August revealed that a dairy cow was sold for slaughter as food in February. An analysis of tissues from this animal revealed the presence of penicillin at 0.106 parts per million, when the agency’s tolerance level is 0.05 ppm. “The presence of this drug in edible tissue from this animal causes the food to be adulterated …,” the letter stated. In addition, FDA told the dairy that required treatment records were not being maintained. 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.

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