FDA: Dole Knew Of Listeria Problem For Over A Year

Reactions have been varied to the news that Dole Food Co. knowingly produced and shipped salads from a contaminated facility, ranging from criticism of the FDA to an admission by Dole’s management that the company is being investigated by the Justice Department.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee responsible for funding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She said Dole’s continued operation of the plant was “an outrage.”

FDA documents obtained by Food Safety News through a Freedom of Information Act request showed Dole officials knew of Listeria in the facility since at least July 2014. The company did not close the Ohio plant until Jan. 21 this year, several days after FDA inspectors showed up.

“Four people died from these contaminated salads, and dozens more were sickened and hospitalized, because executives at Dole put the company’s profits over public health. These executives must be held accountable for their unconscionable actions,” DeLauro said in a statement issued Friday just hours after she learned of the situation.

“The American people deserve better and we must absolutely ensure that a situation like this one never happens again. The Dole facility in question has said that they have taken corrective actions, but we need specific answers as to what those actions are. If Dole’s actions are not sufficient to ensure food safety, then this facility must be shut down.”

Earlier this week Dole declined to provide details about what had been done to clean the Springfield, OH, salad facility that outbreak investigators in the U.S. and Canada linked to Listeria monocytogenes victims via DNA fingerprinting of the pathogen.