Egg Safety Violations Piled High
Numerous food safety violations at massive egg plants operated by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms were uncovered by Food and Drug Administration officials who inspected the Iowa mega farms for most of August.
The inspections were ordered after public health investigators tracked a multi-state Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak to shell eggs produced by the two operators. More than 1,400 illnesses have resulted, triggering an egg lawsuit by food safety lawyers at PritzkerOlsen, P.A., 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE).
The FDA inspection reports showed similar violations at the two companies -- including chicken manure piles so high they were blocking some doors and pushing others open. Hens that had escaped their cages were using eight-foot-high manure piles to access the egg laying area at Wright County Egg, the reports said.
Many notations in the inspection reports referred to unsatisfactory rodent control -- from burrow holes in the walls to scurrying live mice in the barns. Wild birds were flying around inside the facilities and pigeons were roosting in openings in kernell corn grain bins.
Inspectors found maggots and flies too numerous to count, eight frogs under a board, grass between barns that was a foot high and disregard for practices meant to keep workers from tracking Salmonella Enteritidis from one place to another.
Kenneth E. Anderson, a professor of poultry science at North Carolina State University, told the New York Times: “I am surprised that an operation was being operated in that manner in this day and age.”
“Clearly the observations here reflect significant deviations from what’s expected,” FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael R. Taylor said in the same story.
As previously reported, six environmental samples came back positive for Salmonella Enteritidis -- including a sample from Wright County Egg's pullet feed and Wright County Egg's meat and bone meal ingredient bin.
Dr Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner of food protection in the FDA's Office of Foods, told reporters that the FDA received one more positive Salmonella Enteritidis lab result that matches the outbreak strain from spent egg wash water from a facility at Hillandale Farms.
