Long way from Chesapeake Bay

On October 8, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote to Los Angeles-based Prospect Enterprises citing "serious violations" of seafood health codes at the company's San Diego–based Chesapeake Fish Company, located at 535 Harbor Lane.

Following an inspection, the federal food safety agency wrote, "Your fishery products including canned crab meat, salmon, yellow tail, oysters, and clams, are adulterated, in that they may have been prepared, packed, or held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health."

The company wrote back with its remedial plans, and the FDA found some of them "not adequate" in several respects. For example, the monitoring procedure is not adequate to control Clostridium botulinum growth and toxin formation, said the FDA. Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum toxin that is a cause of botulism.

The FDA said Chesapeake had not provided adequate records in several instances.