Sprouters Northwest fails FDA follow-up inspection after sprout recall
On January 3rd, Sprouters Northwest, Inc. (Kent, WA) announced a recall of all of its clover and clover mix sprout products after learning that some of its sprouts had been linked by Washington and Oregon state health authorities to six cases of Salmonella gastroenteritis.
At the best of times, raw sprouts are a high-risk food – easy to contaminate and impossible to clean. That’s why FDA and some state agencies have issued a series of sprout Guidance Documents aimed at sprout producers.
FDA began a nearly 3-week long inspection of Sprouters Northwest on January 3rd – the same day that the recall was announced. An inspection report released by the agency on January 26th provides clear evidence that Sprouters ignored many of the basic sanitation and production recommendations included in those Guidance Documents.
Here are just a few of the FDA inspection team’s observations:
- Listeria monocytogenes on the surface of a table in the packing room;
- Raw sprouts stored in unlined plastic crates and in direct contact with pallets that had been stored on the floor;
- Brown mass of old, thick food grime on support plate inside the rinse tank incline belt;
- Listeria seeligeri (a benign Listeria species) on the grimy support plate;
- Equipment in the seed disinfection room not cleaned between uses;
- Rodent droppings in the warehouse;
- Seeds on the floor in standing water in front of the door leading into the seed disinfection room;
- Water build-up along walls and the floor; and
- “An abrupt stream of water followed by intermittent drips … falling from the ceiling …” in a corner of the warehouse.
With producers like this around, perhaps it’s time for warning labels on sprouts?
