Frozen seafood seized by FDA

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Marshals last month seized seafood products manufactured by the Meiko Food Co. of South El Monte because the products are adulterated.A complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that Meiko Foods manufactures and packages ready-to-eat seafood, including cooked seafood balls and fried fish cakes, without having a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan in place, in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The HACCP program is a science-based system of preventive controls for food safety that was designed to increase the margin of safety for U.S. consumers, and to reduce the potential for illnesses to the lowest possible levels. FDA regulations require commercial processors of fish and fishery products to conduct a hazard analysis to determine whether there are potential food safety hazards and to identify and develop preventive measures to control those hazards. The FDA issued a warning letter to Meiko Food on Nov. 3, 2010, for not having a HACCP plan in place. A subsequent FDA inspection conducted between April and May 2011 revealed that the firm did not correct the deviations cited in the November 2010 warning letter, including significant HACCP deviations. There have been no reported illnesses associated with these products.

********** Published: September 08, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 21