An eight-year track record of food safety violations including positive tests for Listeria and failure to control for Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria which causes botulism, has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to halt production at Neptune Manufacturing, Inc., a producer of smoked and pickled seafood products in Los Angeles.
Since 2006, the FDA has conducted seven inspections of the facility. Each time, investigators found unsanitary conditions. On four occasions, they found Listeria, and on three visits found “a failure to control for Clostridium botulinum.”
“When a company and its owners repeatedly violate the same food safety procedures, their failure to improve their processes and clean up their facility endangers the public,” said Melinda K. Plaisier, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “The FDA will take necessary action to protect the food supply from adulteration.”
On December 1, a federal judge from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against the company and its owners, Alexander Goldring, Peter Oyrekh and Semyon Krutovsky. Neptune sells ready-to-eat smoked and pickled fish to customers in southern California and Las Vegas. The company and its owners are now required to stop processing and distributing smoked and pickled seafood products until they can demonstrate that they have taken specific steps to bring their facility into compliance with the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
No illnesses have been reported in association with Neptune’s products. But Listeria can cause serious illness or death. Those especially vulnerable are pregnant women, newborns, elderly adults and those with impaired immune systems. Among pregnant women, Listeria can cause miscarriage and stillbirth.
Clostridium botulinum can grow in seafood products. It causes botulism, a rare condition that can cause paralysis and death without prompt treatment.
