FDA Shuts Down CA Seafood Processor Over Listeria

WASHINGTONA California seafood importer and processor has been ordered from manufacturing or distributing fish or fish products until it has corrected conditions in its seafood processing facility alleged to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today.

As part of a consent decree, Yamaya USA, Inc., of Torrance, Calif., and its president, Daigo Irifune, agreed to a permanent injunction entered by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on April 5.

According to a complaint for permanent injunction filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of FDA, Yamaya prepared and processed fish and fish products under conditions that contributed to widespread L. mono contamination in their facility. Yamaya also failed to comply with FDAs current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) and seafood hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) regulations

As part of the consent decree, Yamaya must meet several FDA food safety requirements before it can resume manufacturing and distributing fish and fish products. The consent decree also requires that the firm destroy all foods that are currently in process or ready for shipment, and it must clean and sanitize the facility until laboratory results confirm no further L. mono contamination.

The firm must also hire a sanitation and food safety expert to develop and implement a Listeria monitoring program and a HACCP plan, and it must hire an outside auditor to conduct inspections of the facility at least once every three months for three years and once every year for two years after that, for a total of five years of auditing inspections.