The national listeria outbreak linked to caramel apples manufactured at two separate companies led the FDA and CDC on Tuesday to broaden its warning — telling consumers not to eat any prepackaged caramel apples from any company, as three deaths have been confirmed linked to the contaminated treats.
Such national outbreaks — with listeria, salmonella or E. coli the common culprits — have helped fuel the “eat local” movement, and the demand for organic and healthful foods, or at least less-processed ones.
But as every given tainted organic peanut case and others show, the “organic” label is no guarantee of safety or health, just as the local listeria outbreak linked to Snoqualmie Ice Cream, which has sickened two people, demonstrates that the descriptors “local,” “natural,” “small batch,” “very best ingredients” and “handcrafted” don’t mean a thing if the facility where it’s “handcrafted” isn’t clean.
On Tuesday, The Seattle Times reported that Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream’s plant in Snohomish failed a health inspection in October but wasn’t closed because the problems weren’t “critical.” That inspection found the plant had deteriorating floors, excessive dust and some mold issues. The facility scored 87 out of 100 points on the inspection; a passing grade is 90. In December, an inspection found “white grime” on fan grates, “black slime” outside a walk-in cooler and a “hair-like growth” on milk crates, the paper reported.
“Snoqualmie Ice Cream usually scores the highest rating possible by the health department, because they regularly disassemble their mixing machines to clean the piece by piece,” the company notes on its website.
Well, they didn’t score high this year. And they are currently sterilizing everything, not just mixing machines, piece by piece, to get rid of the contamination. But the news that the company did not clean up its act after the October inspection could be very damaging to an extremely popular local brand.
The company might be a victim of its own success, making about 1,000 batches of ice cream a day. It is sold at Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Metropolitan Market, Whole Foods and PCC stores, as well as some independent markets. Snoqualmie also supplies the ice cream for Emerald &Spruce, sold by Bartell Drugs, and Top Pot’s Hand Forged ice cream, as well as Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream shops.
The products were distributed in Arizona, Idaho, California, Oregon and Washington, and may have been further distributed and sold in various retail outlets in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, Consumer Affairs reported.
At what point does “handcrafted, small-batch” ice cream become “mass produced”? When cleanliness declines? When “natural” means “caveat emptor”?
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