Foster Farms was cited 12 times between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27 for fecal material on poultry carcasses and was found to have "poor sanitary dressing practices, unsanitary food contact surfaces and direct product contamination."
Three letters, known as a Notice of Intended Enforcement, were sent Monday and threatens to close three Foster Farm facilities deemed to be the origin of the outbreak. The company has until Thursday to respond with a plan.
The California-based poultry producer must deliver plans to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service to fix the problems that USDA inspectors have uncovered at three of its four production facilities — namely, evidence of Salmonella Heidelberg. This strain of salmonella is drug resistant to several commonly used antibiotics
The outbreak has sickened 280 people in 18 states, with 42 percent of those who got sick hospitalized.. Most of the infected people are from California.
The most common symptoms of salmonella infection include: diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within 8 to 72 hours. Other symptoms would include nausea, vomiting, chills, headache, muscle pains and blood in the stool. All these symptoms can last four to seven days.
Since salmonella infection can cause dehydration, the focus of the treatment would be to replace the fluids and electrolytes. Severe cases might require hospitalization and intravenous intervention. In addition to that, the doctor might recommend the patient to take anti-diarrhea and antibiotics. Anti-diarrhea such as Loperamide can help to relieve the cramping.
Foster Farms released a statement on its website saying that as soon as the company was alerted to concerns over salmonella, "we brought in national food safety experts to assess our processes and have reinforced our processes with new technologies proven to be effective." The note came from Ron Foster, president of Foster Farms, who pledged to resolve the issues.
Foster Farms Sent a plan to resolve these issues as of noon today
And now, FSIS officials "will start the evaluation process to ensure that [Foster Farms is] taking the necessary steps to prevent the persistent recurrence of Salmonella in their facilities,"
On Capitol Hill, representatives Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are calling on Congress to take action on what they describe as a problem of overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
A statement released by Slaughter says antibiotics are routinely given to healthy animals, often to promote growth: "As a result, bacteria become resistant to these overused antibiotics."
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