Dole Food Co. is being investigated by the US Justice Department over a listeria outbreak in connection to four deaths in the US and Canada as well as other several other illnesses. The processing plant under probe is located in Springfield, OH.
Dole is the world's biggest fruit and vegetable producer and was already reached by the agency. In response, the company said that the agency will have their full cooperation to answer questions and address any concerns.
Listeria is a common bacterium which can be harmless or pathogenic and can penetrate a processing facility through raw produce or other materials forming colonies. In the US and Canada, 33 people fell ill from May 2015 to February 2016 getting hospitalized while four of them died, NBC News reported.
Dole stopped its operation at its Ohio facility in January and got rid of its products from its stores in 23 US states and 3 Canadian provinces.
The FDA reports "deal with issues at our plant that we have corrected," said William Goldfield, a spokesman for Dole. "We have been working in collaboration with the FDA and other authorities to implement ongoing improved testing, sanitation and procedure enhancements, which have resulted in the recent reopening of our Springfield salad plant."
According to The Wall Street Journal report, Dole didn't test Springfield's plant surfaces that came into contact with food. Dole performed testing in another place in the plant previous to food production and before sanitation.
Despite the fact that Dole has knowledge of the listeria outbreak, operation still continued which earned varied reactions and criticisms leading to the investigation of the Justice Department. Dole officials knew of the outbreak coming from their Ohio facility since 2014 and didn't close it until January 21st; several days after inspectors from FDA paid a visit, as informed by the Food Safety News.
"Dole's failure to stop shipping products and clean up its plant before the outbreak showed a total disregard for its customers' health," said David Plunkett, senior food safety attorney for the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The FDA and CFIA found the samples were genetic matches to those samples taken from several individuals who became ill during the outbreak. In March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that listeria outbreak associated to Dole seems to be over.
