Texas-Based Egg Producer Draws FDA Rebuke Over Oklahoma Plant Conditions

PROSPER, TX — An Oklahoma-based facility of Texas-based Mahard Egg Farm Inc. is on thin ice after regulators demanded it fix violations related to Salmonella contamination prevention.

The Food and Drug Administration just recently posted a letter on the agency's website alerting the egg producer of serious violations originally sent in late April. In it, the agency warns owner Earnest A. Mahard III that its October 2016 response to its demands was inadequate.

“You should take prompt action to correct the violations cited in this letter,” FDA officials said in the warning letter sent to Mahard. “Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in FDA taking regulatory action without further notice, such as seizure, injunction, or the initiation of administrative enforcement procedures..." officials added.

Among unsanitary conditions spotted by FDA inspectors during an October visit to the company's Sulfur, Okla. plant were issues related to improper Salmonella procedures; evidence of wild birds and sheep in and near, respectively, to poultry houses; fly control; and rodents;

Those violations rendered the shell eggs adulterated, officials wrote in their warning letter. FDA inspectors noted the unsanitary conditions created a scenario where the eggs "...may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health."

Among the violations cited by inspectors:

• "By swabbing the outside of the laying hen feeders and cages, you are not swabbing areas that come in contact with manure, and you are not swabbing the most probable Salmonella recovery areas."
• "You failed to implement measures to prevent stray poultry, wild birds, cats, and other animals from entering poultry house. During the inspection, the investigators observed multiple signs of bird or rodent presence in and around the laying hens."
• "Our investigators observed sheep feces directly outside non-populated houses which can be an attractant to flies and serve as potential harborage. Further, you stated that neither rodent traps nor bait stations are maintained on the exterior of the houses because a flock of sheep have access to the perimeter of the poultry houses."
• "You confirmed the absence of a fly control program in the affidavit signed on Oct. 18, 2016."

Mahard Egg Farm Inc. is located in the city of Prosper, Texas, an affluent suburban town located in Collin and Denton counties that is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The plant in Oklahoma that earned the FDA rebuke is in the town of Sulphur, a city of some 5,000 residents located 83 miles south of Oklahoma City

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