Snip

US prosecutors allege that major tuna canner StarKist & Co. depleted its cash reserves ahead of its pending sentencing on charges that the company engaged in a price-fixing scheme in order to qualify to pay a lower fine.

In heavily redacted documents released earlier this month ahead of the company's July sentencing in federal court in San Francisco, California, prosecutors with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have countered the canner's argument that it is unable to pay the $100 million fine prosecutors seek.

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/05/24/doj-starkist-depleted-cash-reserves-to-qualify-for-lower-price-fixing-fine/

Snip

By Dan Flynn

StarKist, once a unit of San Francisco-based Del Monte Foods, is now owned by South Korea’s Dongwon Industries. The title papers for Pittsburgh-based StarKist went to Dongwon two years ago for $363 million. Dongwon F&B was already the world’s largest canned tuna business, but it wanted StarKist as a vehicle to make inroads into the U.S. market.

At the cannery inspection last Nov. 1-4, FDA found “serious violations” involving StarKist’s seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan and its production of low-acid canned foods. FDA said both the canned tuna and pouched packed tuna being produced by StarKist on American Samoa are “adulterated.”

FDA said it wanted the records to determine StarKist’s actual percentage of defects under manufacturing conditions on certain of its lines.

FDA said that if StarKist does not promptly correct the violations, it will take further actions, including seizing adulterated products and/or enjoining the company from operating. It could also refuse admission (to the U.S. mainland) of its tuna under “detention without physical examination.”

Under multiple HACCP violations, the FDA inspectors said they found several racks of thawed, pre-cooked loins still in their plastic vacuum packages staged in the processing room and stacked on production tables for further processing in air temperatures of 76 to 81 degrees.

The food safety hazard of Staphylococcus aureus can occur in temperatures of 70 degrees or more after three hours.

In comments about low acid canned foods, FDA says where double seams or glass containers are not used, detailed inspections and test intervals are required to ensure proper closure and hermetic seal production.

StarKist does not perform a meaningful destructive test on heat sealed pouches of tuna products at intervals of sufficient frequency under manufacturing conditions, FDA said.

Maxfield’s letter said StarKist uses both burst testing and tensile strength testing. He said the company was following an industry standard for visual double seam checks, but would take FDA’s advice into account.

FDA said destructive tensile strength testing is not appropriate because the pouches being tested are not first filled with tuna fish. Instead they are tested empty.

https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/03/korean-owned-starkist-tuna-says-no-to-fda/

------
3 Major Tuna Companies Are Being Sued for Allegedly False 'Dolphin-Safe' Labels

StarKist, Bumble Bee Foods, and Chicken of the Sea are coming under fire for their fishing practices.
By Eric Todisco
May 16, 2019 05:33 PM

Three of the biggest tuna companies are coming under fire over their fishing practices.

According to NBC News, a class-action suit filed by U.S. consumers on Monday states that the packaged tuna brands Bumble Bee Foods, StarKist, and Chicken of the Sea all have labeled their products as “dolphin safe,” but contends that this is not the case.

https://people.com/food/tuna-companies-sued-dolphin-safe-labels/