USDA threatens to close Foster Farms plants linked to salmonella

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has threatened to shut down three Foster Farms chicken plants in the Valley linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened an estimated 278 people around the country, including perhaps six in Stanislaus County.

The USDA said Wednesday that the company has until today to show how it will fix the problem at the plants, one in Livingston and the other two in Fresno.

Ron Foster, president and chief executive officer at Foster Farms, said it is working with federal regulators to address the concerns, but for now the plants continue to produce chicken certified as “Grade A wholesome” by the USDA.

Foster, in a written statement Wednesday evening, said consumers can protect themselves with proper handling of raw chicken and thorough cooking.

“I am deeply sorry for any illness associated with Foster Farms chicken and for any concern or confusion caused by this week’s activity,” Foster said. “We have a 75-year history for excellence because of our commitment to continuous advancement in food safety. We are putting every resource we have toward the continued safety of our fresh chicken.”

Dr. John Walker, the public health officer for Stanislaus County, said the six cases are believed to have occurred between mid-July and mid-August.

“The cases were probably related to the chicken ingestion, but we cannot be certain,” Walker said in an email to The Modesto Bee. “We are not aware of any critically ill persons.”

Merced County has no reported cases. Information on San Joaquin County was not available.

The chicken at issue was sold raw, but the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service said it has not been able to link the outbreak to a specific product. Foster Farms also makes numerous cooked chicken items, along with turkey.

The inspection service sent the letter Monday, giving Foster Farms 72 hours to take corrective action or it would withdraw its inspectors.

Poultry plants are not permitted to operate without federal inspectors, who are considered essential employees and have continued to work during the partial government shutdown.

Foster Farms employs about 12,000 people in chicken and turkey operations in California and a few other Western and Southern states.

Livingston Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra said about 3,000 people work at the plant there and at nearby chicken farms and feed operations.

“It’s not just the people in Livingston who work there, but in other communities as well,” he said. “It is the largest employer in Livingston and one of the largest in Merced County.”

The company has a large ripple effect, said Mark Hendrickson, director of the Merced County Department of Commerce, Aviation and Economic Development.

“Foster Farms and its employees have long represented a very significant part of our local economy, not only with the jobs it has on site, but all the ancillary spending in the community,” he said.

Another salmonella outbreak earlier this year was traced to a Foster Farms poultry plant in Washington state. About 134 cases were reported in 13 states.

Tony Corbo, who lobbies for Food & Water Watch, a food-safety advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said that should have been a warning sign.

“The fact that you have Foster Farms in two outbreaks should have put everyone on notice that something was up,” he said.

When a salmonella outbreak last year was traced to several brands of pre-washed, prepackaged spinach, the affected companies voluntarily pulled the spinach off supermarket shelves.

But chicken products are rarely subject to recalls. The USDA allows 7.5 percent of chicken carcasses to be contaminated with salmonella, Corbo said.

By contrast, the agency will not allow any company to sell products contaminated with E. coli, bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Companies selling beef and spinach have been forced to recall products because of E. coli.

“It’s absolute zero tolerance,” Corbo said.

In the letter to Foster Farms, Yudhbir Sharma of USDA’s Alameda district office said the company has failed to demonstrate that it has adequate controls in place to address the salmonella issue. He said that in one of the facilities, 25 percent of the samples taken were positive for salmonella.

The letter said that prior to the outbreak, USDA inspectors had documented “fecal material on carcasses” along with “poor sanitary dressing practices, insanitary food contact surfaces, insanitary nonfood contact surfaces and direct product contamination.”

The majority of illnesses have been in California, but people in 17 states have been infected, from Texas to Michigan to North Carolina. The USDA had originally said the outbreak was in 18 states.

The first illnesses were reported in March, and the outbreak has had a high rate of hospitalizations. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 42 percent of victims were hospitalized, about double the normal rate, and it is resistant to many antibiotics, making it a more dangerous outbreak.

The pathogen can be life-threatening to those with weakened immune systems and causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within a few days of eating a contaminated product.

Foster said the company has upgraded food-safety measures over the past two months and will take other steps needed to improve the operations.

“It should be noted that while no illness is ever acceptable, the time period for this issue was over the course of six months from March to mid-September,” he said. “During that time, more than 25 million consumers safely consumed Foster Farms chicken.”

Poultry expert Michelle Ganci, professor of animal science at California State University, Fresno, said that one way to prevent food-borne illnesses is to follow simple food-safety guidelines at home.

She recommends that cooks use a meat thermometer, make sure the juices run clear when cutting into poultry, and use separate cutting boards for meat and other foods such as fruits and vegetables. Poultry should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees.

“Salmonella is in our world; that is the reality,” Ganci said. “But we can totally eradicate it by cooking it to the right temperature.”

The Fresno Bee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published October 9, 2013 at 9:14 PM.