Health Law

Nestle Plant Refused Full Cooperation with FDA

By Marler Clark

Two reports of past inspections were made public today.  The most notable inspection occurred in September 2006 at the Nestle plant in Danville, Virginia where it manufactures cookie dough products, as well as stuffed pastas and pasta sauces.  A number of deficiencies were noted as part of the inspection. These were:

Three live ant-like insects were observed on a ledge along the W wall of the powdered sugar dump station in the cookie dough manufacturing area.
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Dirty stainless steel equipment and utensils were observed in a bin which was identified as "clean" in the cookie dough cleaning area.
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Water or other clear liquid was observed dripping from an overhead line in the liquid egg receiving bay.
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The knock off ann for the check weigher was improperly timed or otherwise not functioning properly to remove trays of cookie dough on line ten.

More disturbing, however, is  the refusal by the plant to give FDA inspectors access to important food safety related documents and information, including:

Percent ofproducts which move in interstate commerce
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Review of complaint log
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Use of camera
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Review ofpest control records
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Review ofHACCP program
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Information on environmental testing program

This is troublingly reminiscent of the Peanut Corporation of America, which also refused to give access to important records, forcing the FDA to invoke the Bioterrorism Act of 2002. 

A copy of the FDA Inspection Report can be found here: www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/ORA/ORAElectronicReadingRoom/UCM169114.pdf

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).