Food and Drug Administration officials hit McDonald's supplier with dozens of violations linked to deadly outbreak of E. coli which yielded even more hundred infections and a widespread recall of onions used in the fast food chain's products, including its Quarter Pounder burger.
The violations, detailed in an inspection report released to CBS News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, were spotted during an inspection of a food production facility in Colorado operated by Taylor Farms.
According to their findings the FDA issued a so-called Form 483 to the McDonald's supplier, which was a list of citations on conditions that inspectors were concerned could be “injurious to health.”
That facility was tasked with supplying “chopped onions” to McDonald's restaurants in several states. Taylor Farms also produces several other products, including lettuce, which it sells as safe and ready-to-eat in grocery stores.
For the restaurant, Taylor Farms Bills your products As a “prep-less kitchen solution”, it allows food service workers to skip the usual preparation steps they need to use with normal produce that must be washed and cut before eating.
“We hold our suppliers to the highest expectations and standards for food safety. Prior to this inspection, and unrelated to its findings, McDonald's had ceased sourcing from Taylor Farms' Colorado Springs facility,” McDonald's said in a statement.
The company has pointed towards its October Announcement Following the outbreak it said it would stop buying onions from Taylor Farms in Colorado “indefinitely”, changing suppliers for about 900 restaurants that depended on the plant.
“Taylor Farms is confident in its best-in-class food safety practices and, in turn, the quality and safety of our products. As is common following an inspection, the FDA issued comments of conditions that need to be improved at one of our facilities. Can be done, Taylor Farms said in a statement.
The statement said the company “took immediate steps” to address the issues, and added that the FDA classified The inspection did not result in “administrative or regulatory action” against the company.
“This is consistent with the fact that there is no illness or public health threat associated with these observations,” Taylor Farms said.
Ultimately Taylor Farms Remembered that Thousands of cases of ready-to-eat onions, which it distributed to food service facilities in six states after the outbreak.
At least 104 cases of E. coli infection were linked to it outbreakThat includes 34 hospitalizations and one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Should have been marked as 'failed'”
FDA inspectors said they discovered “numerous pieces of equipment with apparent biofilm and large amounts of food debris” around the Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs, even as workers reportedly completed their required cleaning procedures. Had done.
The FDA said Taylor Farms quality control officers had signed off on cleanliness at the facility, while agency inspectors said they still “observed several food contact surfaces that were not visually clean and rated them as 'failing.' Should have been marked.”
FDA inspectors were concerned that the food debris accumulating on the company's equipment was so bad that it was causing cross-contamination. A company that purchases green peppers from Taylor Farms complained that their ready-to-eat product was laced with onions.
FDA inspectors alleged that employees were also cutting back on the hygiene steps they were required to take.
Employees at a McDonald's supplier only “occasionally” used hand sanitizer when handling food that was considered ready-to-eat, or “RTE,” as the industry calls it, on their gloved hands.
“Production staff handling RTE produce and food contact surfaces were not observed using any handwashing sinks in the facility,” FDA inspectors wrote.
“The appliance remains constantly wet”
FDA inspectors also found that Taylor Farms was repeatedly skipping the drying step after immersing equipment in a solution of sanitizing chemicals, leading inspectors to fear that the solution was “directly applied” to ready-to-eat products. going.
“The wet processing environment and cold temperatures caused the equipment to remain constantly wet,” agency inspectors wrote.
The FDA said the manufacturer's instructions for the cleaning solution urge users to air-dry sanitized utensils.
FDA officials were also concerned about how workers were cooking the cleaning chemical mixture they were using.
Some solutions tested above the maximum concentrations of chemicals allowed, while the company was not sure how it got the recipe for another cleaning mixture it was using, which was questioned by FDA inspectors.
The inspectors said, “Management could not produce a manufacturer label and/or manufacturers/chemical representatives claiming that the mixture of these chemicals listed above was designed for this use.”