Between 2004 and 2014, chicken from the California-based Foster Farms has been linked to four salmonella outbreaks, the most recent of which infected 634 people across the country. Health officials in Oregon and Washington – the states where the first outbreak in 2004 was concentrated – had repeatedly warned the U.S. Department of Agriculture about the company, yet the agency did nothing. Foster Farms has since spent millions cleaning up its plants. But the USDA continues to operate with the same practices that contributed to its sluggish response to the Foster Farms contaminations, reports OregonLive.com
From the story:
“During the third outbreak, the USDA largely left state officials in the dark, even though they kept pressing for more information…. By December 2012, [Emilio] DeBess, Oregon’s lead investigator, was exasperated. ‘There seems to be a silence regarding any investigation and the findings so far,’ he wrote … to the CDC.”
Read the full story here.