Perdue Foods, LLC: Non-Compliance to Poultry Good Commercial Practices in 2023 (USDA)
See the detail of the non-compliance of poultry good commercial practices that the USDA observed at the Perdue Foods, LLC poultry establishment in 2023.
You can also see other establishments that were non-compliant in 2023.
381.65(b)
On Saturday, October 15, 2022, at approximately 0745 hours I was notified by a Consumer Safety Inspector that one of the online food inspectors had observed a cadaver with its head attached and had not seen a kill cut. The inspector had retained the bird for me to look at. I went to her station on line 2, station 1 and agreed that the bird was an uncut cadaver. The bird had died by means other than by slaughter. I proceeded to do a poultry good commercial practices check for kill line #1 (the kill line the cadaver had originated from). At 0801 I was watching birds as they entered the low (first) section of the scalder for kill line #1 when I saw a bird that had no kill cut and was had its head flexed and looking at me. I hit the kill line stop button, but the bird still entered the scalder media before the line stopped. I notified Mr. REDACTED (receiving team lead) and he was able to remove the bird from the shackle/scalder. I went to observe the kill machine and post-stun area. There were many birds that held their heads up and did not get stunned, resulting in many not going through the kill machine (missing the guide bars). The backup killer associate did catch these as I was watching. I returned to watch the birds as they entered the scalder and at 0804 again stopped the line for another uncut bird. Mr. REDACTED (1st processing plant manager) was also in observance. At 0805 another uncut bird entered the scalder media before the line stopped (it was able to be retrieved). Then another two birds were uncut, observed between 0805 and 0806 hours. These were able to be removed from the line before they entered the scalder, by Mr. REDACTED. I watched the pre-scalder area for kill line #1 until I saw no further uncut birds for several minutes. I then walked the kill line just past the last picker bank and observed 3 cadavers exit the pickers. Mr. REDACTED removed these from the line as we observed them. No further cadavers were seen after that. My above observations demonstrate a loss of process control, with at least 4 birds that died by means other than by slaughter. An additional 5 birds would have died in the scalder due to no kill cuts, had I not been there observing/intervening.
