FDA WARNING_LETTER - VL Furtado Dairy - February 12, 2015

On February 10 and 12, 2015, the FDA inspected VL Furtado Dairy in Hanford, California, and found violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The dairy offered for sale three adulterated animals for slaughter as food.

Specifically, a dairy cow sold on November 6, 2014, had 2.15 ppm of desfuroylceftiofur in the kidney (tolerance 0.4 ppm) and 1.28 ppm of flunixin in the liver (tolerance 0.125 ppm). Another cow sold on December 15, 2014, contained 1.88 ppm of desfuroylceftiofur in the kidney and 5.37 ppm of flunixin in the liver. A third cow sold on December 22, 2014, had 0.49 ppm of desfuroylceftiofur in the kidney and 0.602 ppm of penicillin in the kidney (tolerance 0.05 ppm). These levels exceed FDA tolerances, rendering the food adulterated under 21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(2)(C)(ii).

The investigation also revealed insanitary conditions, including a failure to maintain complete treatment records, which could lead to medicated animals with harmful drug residues entering the food supply, violating