The USDA recorded 69 violations in a year. So far, 9 people have died in the outbreak.

On July 17, the inspector found “green algal growth” in a puddle of standing water in a raw holding cooler. And on July 27, an inspector noted clear liquid leaking out from a square patch on the ceiling. Behind the patch, there were two other patches that were also leaking. An employee came and wiped the liquid away with a sponge, but it returned within 10 seconds. The employee wiped it again, and the liquid again returned within 10 seconds. Meanwhile, a ceiling fan mounted close by was blowing the leaking liquid onto uncovered hams in a hallway outside the room.

A picture of hell.

  • @SolarMonkey@slrpnk.netEnglish
    96•20 days ago

    Y’all would be fucking horrified by the state of food manufacturing if you knew.

    I used to work at a food processing and distribution company, in the document processing department… we weren’t strictly supposed to read the audits, especially the internal ones, but we did, to make sure they were complete and compliant, which was our job. Also our job was intensely boring and we needed something to gossip about.

    The number of our distributors (first level manufacturing) who got C or D grades on their inspections… fucking gross. I reported a few of them, but the company did not care.

    Before that I worked at a chicken hatchery. The cultures I cultured -doing an audit just like those I read later in life- were sooooo gross and problematic. But I was instructed to cover it up because, and this is important context, it was all self report after the initial inspection. I was doing this at 16, and was likely significantly more thorough than any veteran employee would have been. (Absolutely not why I was chosen; they chose me due to incredibly mild nepotism, as my manager was my step-dad, and he knew science stuff was up my alley… plus I was a filler worker, being under 18.)

    I really hope things have improved, but somehow I doubt that the past 20 years has made a positive impact from my audit experience. (The document processing was less than 10 years ago, supporting my belief nothing has changed for the better.)