Penn Dutch markets ditch over 1.5 tons of meat and poultry; state tests reveal bacteria

Penn Dutch Meat and Seafood Markets have developed a loyal following over the quality and price of their store-brand meats and poultry, but it had to destroy more than 3,400 pounds of that product recently after state inspectors found possibly unsanitary conditions at the company’s Hollywood store.

Follow-up tests have confirmed the presence of a bacteria that can cause food poisoning on a half-dozen items at the store, said state officials who have shut down its food processing operations.

The tests were taken March 5 after random sampling in February showed listeria monocytogenes bacteria to be present on chicken salad and turkey breast at the store, said Dr. Matthew Curran, director of food safety for the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.

Inspectors found water dripping from the ceiling of the store’s walk-in chiller and blowing from chiller fans onto uncovered meat products, including turkey drums, ham hocks, chorizo and Georgia sausage. The state put a “stop sale order” on about 1,900 pounds of meat and poultry at the store and two days later stopped the sale of another 1,500 pounds that had been delivered from the store to the company’s second location in Margate.

Penn Dutch President Greg Salsburg said all the items were destroyed out of “an abundance of caution” and that none of the food in question was sold to the public.

“We have an inventory of what went up and what was sold. None was ever sold,” he said. The company has discontinued the sale of all its Penn Dutch products that were store-made in Hollywood.

State inspectors took 14 samples that revealed listeria bacteria present on six: beef balogna, turkey breast, oven-roasted chicken breast, Everwood chicken breast, smoked turkey breast and white tuna salad, Curran said. Samplings of five products at the Margate store did not show the bacteria, he said.

The Centers for Disease Control say the bacteria can cause Listeriosis, which it describes as a serious infection “most likely to sicken pregnant women and their newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems.” About 1,600 people get Listeriosis each year, and about 260 die, the CDC says.

If customers have concerns about items they purchased at the store, they can either contact the state agriculture department or see if the store will take back the items, Cannon said.

The Hollywood store’s processing operation will be shut down until at least next week, when the state expects to get results from additional testing to pinpoint the source of the listeria.

“A thorough deep cleaning of the facility is often warranted to remove the pathogen from the facility,” Curran said. “If it’s not removed fully, it will grow again and will spread.”

Salsburg said the store is cooperating fully with inspectors.

“We’re working with a team of experts to bring everything up to where it needs to be,” Salsburg said.

However, while Salsburg said the company didn’t sell any of the recent contaminated product to the public, the same may not be the case for the February findings. Once the results came back positive for the listeria bacteria, the company destroyed 100 pounds of chicken salad, but there was no turkey breast left to be destroyed, officials said.

Matt Colson, the state’s chief of food inspection, said there were no reports of illnesses related to the February findings.

Penn Dutch is a two-store, locally owned company. The Hollywood store is at 3950 N. 28th Terrace, while the newer Margate store is at 3201 N. State Road 7.

“We’ve been open for 44 years,” Salsburg said. “This has obviously never happened before. We’re going to make it so it never happens in the future.”

The Margate store is fully operational and is now packaging meat and poultry items for both stores while the investigation continues, Salsburg said.

Salsburg said the condensation found in the Hollywood chiller room was to be expected as meat products came out of the high heat of the store’s smoke house and were rapidly cooled down in the chill room for safety reasons.

But it’s that condensation that gives the listeria bacteria a place to live and grow, Curran said.

Grocery stores like Penn Dutch are generally inspected once a year, Curran said. It’s fairly unusual to find listeria monocytogenes during testing, he said, but once uncovered it’s often in several locations in a store.

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