B&B Poultry Co., Inc.: Non-Compliance to Poultry Good Commercial Practices in 2024 (USDA)

381.65(b)

On today, April 15, 2024, while performing the routine Poultry Good Commercial Practices task, I observed the following Noncompliance. At approximately 0710 hours, in a first walk around when the plant was beginning operations, I was observing the fowl enter the scalder, when I had observed several birds entering the scalder still breathing. In a matter of approximately two minutes or less, I had observed two conscious, uncut, live chickens trying to upright their heads and three to five birds that were cut, but continued to flap their wings and made gasping movements that indicated potential breathing. I immediately went to observe the backup cutters and had observed live birds flapping wings and making other conscious movements, before being cut and after the stun plate. I immediately went to notify establishment management. I spoke to REDACTED, QA Manager at 0715 hours and she called for REDACTED, Plant Manager to perform corrective actions, which included adding a third backup cutter. I returned to verify the effectiveness of corrective actions at approximately 0845 hours and I had continued to observe a similar trend of birds going into the scalder. In about a minute, I had observed one conscious bird trying to upright its head, and continued to see several more birds that were flapping their wings or continuing to make gasping movements. After observing similar observations to earlier in the morning, I then got SPHV Dr. REDACTED, to verify my findings. Together, we observed more of the continuing trend of conscious and moving birds that were not being slaughtered in a manner that resulted in thorough bleeding of the carcasses, and was leading to birds entering the scalder before their breathing had stopped. This activity was present in every third to fourth bird on the line. We then walked over to the hot hang’s inedible bins to seek potential cadavers, and confirmed three cadavers, with others still in the bin, in less than 5 minutes. We also observed the area where the birds exit the scalder, noting that every third to fourth bird was a cadaver. There was a trend of birds dying other than by slaughter and repeatedly entering the scald tank while breathing. Additionally, the process the establishment was using, including the addition of adding a third back up cutter, was not adequate to prevent this problem from occurring. This indicated a loss of process control, confirming a system deficiency of the continuation of live, uncut birds entering the scalder. After confirming our findings, SPHV Dr. REDACTED and I had called REDACTED, General Manager to meet us at live hang. At this time, REDACTED was notified of the loss of process control, and the birds at Live Hang were retained using tag B38526285. Live hang operation was stopped from 0917 hours until approximately 1010 hours. REDACTED was verbally notified of the NR. During time live hang was retained, the establishment enacted corrective actions. Corrective actions taken included retraining plant personnel to ensure the live birds are hung properly, and that the backup cutters are ensuring the birds are cut properly. In addition, the stun plate was repaired to prevent intermittent voltage. The Process returned to control at approximately 1012 hours. This is a noncompliance with 9 CFR 381.65(b)