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Foster Farms chicken plant shut down by cockroaches

A cockroach infestation caused the USDA to pull the plug on Foster Farms' Livingston, Calif. plant. This comes only months after the plant was implicated in  salmonella cases across 18 states.

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PRNewsFoto/Foster Farms
A Foster Farms American Humane Certified Package of chicken. A Livingston, Calif. Foster Farms poultry plant was shut down Jan. 8 due to a cockroach infestation, though no chicken products were affected, according to the company

Chicken à la cockroach, anyone? If the thought makes you cringe, you’re not alone: the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shut down a Foster Farms poultry plant on Wednesday after finding live cockroaches at the plant on five separate occasions.

The Livingston, Calif. facility was shut down only months after the USDA threatened to shutter the same plant, along with two other Foster Farms plants in Fresno, Calif., due to a salmonella outbreak linked to the company’s chicken.

Cockroaches were found near a hand washing sink, on a tub that also comes in contact with products, and between “the liver tumbler/belt and the wall”, among other locations, according to a  five-page letter from Abdalla Amin, deputy district manager for the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in Alameda, Calif., to Foster Farms CEO Ron Foster on Jan. 8. 

“These recent findings of egregious insanitary conditions related to an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer cockroach infestation in your facility indicate that your establishment is not being operated and maintained in sanitary condition, or in a manner to ensure that product is not adulterated,” Amin writes in the letter.

A statement from Foster Farms says five cockroaches were found by FSIS, though Amin's letter did not specify a number. The company insists it is committed to the same sanitation standards as FSIS.

“A single incident is not acceptable, and we are committed to a zero tolerance policy,” the statement reads.

The cockroach problem comes just four months after the USDA issued a public health alert for chicken products produced at three Foster Farms plants (including the Livingston plant) that were linked to an outbreak of over 278 cases of salmonella in 18 states.

“Illnesses were linked to Foster Farms brand chicken through epidemiologic, laboratory and traceback investigations conducted by local, state, and federal officials,” the USDA says in a release announcing the alert.

The FSIS letter did not mention the salmonella outbreak in connection with the most recent plant closure.

Foster Farms products are sold mainly on the West Coast. Thus far, the USDA has not issued any recalls or public health alerts about Foster Farms poultry products related to the roach problem. The letter says the company must detail a “full corrective and preventative plan” before the plant can reopen.

Foster Farms says no products were affected. In the meantime, it has moved production to its other plants and expects a treatment on Wednesday would solve the issue.

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