Wednesday, February 1, 2012

FDA shutting down Queens cheesemaker

From the NY Times:

The Food and Drug Administration is trying to shutter permanently a cheese factory in Queens whose owners failed to clean up the plant after a potentially deadly bacteria was discovered on more than one occasion, according to the government.

This week, the agency filed suit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn to halt all dairy production at the company, Mexicali Cheese Corporation in Woodhaven, due to what it called a history of unsanitary conditions and its managers’ refusal to change their practices.

Inspections over the last three years, which were set off by the finding of staphylococcal bacteria in a cheese sample in 2009, have turned up a long list of violations, including equipment that was covered in harmful bacteria; flies, maggots and mold in production areas; stagnant pools of dirty water on the floor; and rodent excrement in the supply rooms, the suit said.

Besides staphylococcal bacteria, which can cause a staph infection, inspectors found traces of listeria, another deadly bacteria, particularly for pregnant women and their fetuses and for people with compromised immune systems. The agency had no reports of illness caused by Mexicali cheese.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

one can't help but to think of the restaurant grading complaints: it's not fair! (despite documented cases of rat crap, stagnant water, et al.) -which have led to outraged indignation and calls for review from politicos, and wonder how that will spin out here, with a possible ethnic discrimination angle?

Anonymous said...

But why did it take three long years?

Anonymous said...

¡Ay, caramba!

Anonymous said...

ICE should investigate as well!

Anonymous said...

illegal cheese made by illegal workers to be purchased by illegal consumers. What world we live in today...

Anonymous said...

Montezuma will want more revenge for this.

Bugs Bunny said...

Ah! Have some cheese, rat!!!