Central Valley Meat Co. provides ground beef for the National School Lunch Program. A day after U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors closed the facility due to unsanitary conditions, it was back up and running on Wednesday. Employees went about their regular business of processing meat.
In a company statement, Central Valley Meat said, "When presented with the finding of unsanitary conditions by our USDA oversight team, we took immediate action."
The company did not go into specifics as to what the unsanitary conditions were but said it completed a comprehensive review of its sanitary practices and "implemented the corrective actions necessary to assure that the issue is completely and permanently resolved."
David Acheson, a former Food and Drug Administration associate chief, said the infraction appears to have been a minor one. /p>
"Number one, there's going to be a triggering event. Number two, that triggering event could have been very easily fixed. It may be a cleanliness issue, may be a sanitation issue. It may be an equipment issue," said Acheson.
Beef industry experts say previous incidents at the facility may have led to the quick action by the USDA. Last year, Central Valley Meat recalled thousands of pounds of ground beef because some of it may have contained pieces of plastic. In 2012, it shut down for a week after animal rights groups sent the USDA video of cows being tortured with electric prods at the facility.
In-N-Out and McDonald's stopped buying beef from Central Valley Meat after the 2012 incident.
