3 California food suppliers ordered to close after coronavirus outbreaks go unreported
Health officials were not notified of the outbreaks initially
Los Angeles health officials ordered three area food suppliers to shutter over unreported coronavirus outbreaks among their workers.
S & S Foods in Azusa, California, was told to close after 58 employees tested positive for coronavirus, KTLA reported. The order also included Mission Foods Corp. in Commerce, where 40 tested positive, and Golden State Foods Corp. in City of Industry, where 43 tested positive, according to KTLA.
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“They have significant outbreaks amongst their employees, [and] we were not notified, as we’re required to be notified, once they had their three cases,” LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday, according to KTLA. “Our inspector asked them to make some modifications to really enhance their infection control protocols at all three sites.”
Golden State Foods is one of McDonald's largest suppliers.
Mission Foods employee Jose Roberto Alvarez, 67, died in July after contracting the coronavirus, and his family said the company did not adequately protect him, KTLA reported.
In this April 9, 2020 photo, a health worker administers a coronavirus test at a drive-through testing site organized by actor Sean Penn's nonprofit organization Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) at Malibu City Hall in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo
"He would come home and tell my mom someone else got it, then someone else got it. There were rumblings he heard among the facility,” his daughter Alisha Alvarez said, according to KTLA. “The fact that his work did not disclose that other people were sick, and putting him in harm’s way, is truly unbelievable.”
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Many workers in the food industry have continued clocking in amid the pandemic, and meat processing plants were especially hard hit early in the coronavirus pandemic.
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More than 16,000 workers at meat and poultry processing plants in 23 states were diagnosed with coronavirus through May 31, according to the latest numbers from the CDC.
FOX Business' inquiries to Golden State Foods Corp., Mission Foods and S & S Foods LLC's parent company CTI Foods were not immediately returned.
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