EINNEWS, December 3—The Iowa factory egg processor responsible for last summer’s widespread salmonella outbreak has been given the green light to sell its product from two of its barns.
Wright County Egg recalled nearly 400 million eggs earlier this year after the farm and another Iowa operation, Hillandale Farms, were linked to more than 1,600 salmonella illnesses. FDA inspectors found the farms contaminated with dead chickens, insects, rodents and towers of manure.
While Hillandale was cleared to resume shipments in October, Wright, which had far more violations, was restricted until this week.
FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the government will allow the company to sell eggs from two laying houses at one of its six farms.
The FDA said the company has sanitized the laying houses and removed the hens that were there, developed plans to prevent contamination, vaccinated hens for salmonella, rid the houses of rodents, disinfected its feed mill, corrected structural defects in the houses and started testing feed ingredients.
In a statement, Wright County Egg CEO Peter DeCoster said the farm has taken “extraordinary measures” to ensure their eggs are safe.
“We recognize that we will have to continue to do more than is expected of us as we resume operations at our Iowa farms, both to ensure our ongoing compliance with FDA regulations and to re-establish successful relationships with our customers,” DeCoster said.
DeCoster’s father, Jack DeCoster, owns the farm. The elder DeCoster has paid millions of dollars in state and federal fines over at least two decades for health, safety, immigration and environmental violations at several of his operations.
Read more news about salmonella contamination at http://foodsafety.einnews.com/news/food-safety-salmonella.
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