Warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently have gone out to four domestic  seafood processors and a Puerto Rico importer. The first, dating back to Oct. 1, 2015, went to Vernon, CA-based New Zealand Seafood Marketing for “serious violations” of the seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation. The warning letter said the company’s failure to have or implement a HACCP plan renders its fish or fishery products adulterated within the meaning of the law. FDA inspected the California facility last April 14-17, and the company responded to the inspection in email responses on May 1 and 12, providing an updated HACCP plan. However, the agency the seafood processor’s “fish and fishery products continue to be adulterated.”  FDA then went on to provide detailed instructions for the company to follow in order to get into compliance with HACCP regulations. A second California seafood processor, Tao Ling Seafood Inc., was also received a warning letter last year from FDA. The Nov. 17 letter went to the Monterey Park company, and was also for  “serious violations” of seafood HACCP regulations. “You do not have or have not implemented written verification procedures, product specifications, and an affirmative step for ensuring that fishery products you import are processed in compliance with the Seafood HACCP regulation, “ the warning letter said. “Specifically, you do not have written verification procedures, product specifications, or an affirmative step for frozen shrimp…” The third warning to a domestic seafood processor from last year went to Ripley, MS-based Bennett’s Inc. FDA said the company does not have a HACCP for its fresh catfish, frozen shrimp, frozen oysters, and frozen crawfish tails. “Your firm also hasn’t conducted a hazard analysis for any of these fishery products to control the food safety hazards of pathogenic bacteria growth and toxin formation as a result of time and temperature abuse,” FDA said in the letter dated Dec. 30, 2015. Finally from last year, Puerto Rico’s Fábrica & Confecciones Soto, Inc was warned on Dec. 18 about seafood HACCP violations. “Accordingly, your products “Tacos de Cameron’s”, (translation to English: “Shrimp Tacos”) are adulterated, in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health,” said the FDA warning letter. New Hyde Park, NY-based Harbor Seafood Inc. received a 2016 warning letter from the FDA dated Jan. 8. It said the “importer establishment” also had “serious violations” involving the seafood HACCP regulations. “You must implement an affirmative step which ensures that the fish and fishery product(s) you import are processed in accordance with the seafood HACCP regulation, to comply with 21 CFR123.12(a)(2)(ii), “FDA wrote.  “However, your firm did not implement an affirmative step for frozen tuna steak (that are) individually vacuum packed…” Meanwhile,  FDA sent a warning letter to a Watertown, NY dairy farm about its sale of an animal with illegal drug residues.   (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)