Melissa Allison has a follow-up report that was published on The Seattle Times on October 15, 2011:
Jeff
Babcock, owner of Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea, has spent the past month
learning a painful and public lesson in bureaucratic process. Babcock says he
has now replied to the FDA's letter and expects another inspection at some
point. He also plans to ask that Zoka's response be posted on the FDA's
website.
Meanwhile,
the state inspected Zoka's roastery on Sept. 14 and gave it a passing score of
93 out of 100. Its last regular state inspection was on Aug. 24, 2010, when it
received a 96.
Business
has been hurt "maybe a little," Babcock says. "We had people
saying terrible things that were not true." The rhetoric cooled when Zoka
posted a response on its website, explaining what had happened.
"We
offered anybody to come look at the roastery any time they want," he says.
"My intention is to make it and keep it the cleanest roastery on West
Coast, so it never happens again."
Read the full report down
below the original article
Rodent droppings, insect larva found at Zoka Coffee roaster
September 29, 2011
The best part of waking up is …
mouse feces? Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right.
Seattle-based coffee roaster Zoka was recently slapped with a warning
letter from the FDA because of health concerns at its coffee roasting facility
on Nickerson Street. The inspection, which happened in April, turned up
“serious violations” of federal law.
A warning letter, issued earlier
this month, states inspectors found evidence of evidence of a rodent and insect
infestation. That evidence: rodent excreta pellets and insect larva.
Zoka owner Jeff Babcock said
Thursday his company was already aware of a mouse infestation prior to the
inspection and was working to fix the problem. The facility voluntarily shut
down for three days and destroyed three bags of contaminated coffee.
He said the FDA “made a mistake” in
issuing another warning this month.
“Within nine days, we had this place
perfect – more perfect than it has ever been,” Babcock said.
The FDA warning states: “These
violations cause the food products produced in your facility to be adulterated
… in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions
whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to
health.”
It goes on to say the company’s
response so far has been inadequate, lacking specifics and documents outlining
efforts to clean up the operation.
But Babcock said his company was
working with state health officials, and that the FDA failed to recognize or
respond to its updates about clean-up efforts.
“It’s very bothersome to us that the
FDA did not respond back to us,” he said, adding that Zoka passed a more recent
inspection with a nearly perfect score.
The inspection in April found much
of the contamination around burlap bags of green coffee stored on pallets at
the roaster. A rodent nest was observed on one pallet of stacked bags, and
another bag had a gnaw hole about a half inch in diameter.
Rodent droppings were also observed
in the roaster’s production room, training room, break room and tea-repackaging
area, according to the letter.
“One live rodent, approximately 4
inches long, was observed in an open doorway leading from the main stairwell
toward the tea re-packing area,” inspectors letter added.
The full warning letter is posted on
the FDA’s website.
Babcock said no contaminated coffee
was ever released to any of its cafes or retail partners.
“This is all misinformation,” he
said. “It’s very damaging when the truth isn’t known.”
The company released a full statement addressing the FDA
letter on its blog. Babcock said customers should go to the
company’s Facebook page
to see photos of the cleaned-up facility.
Hat tip to Consumerist
for first reporting the story.
----
----
Coffee firm snared by regulatory miscues
Seattle coffee
roaster Zoka learned a painful and public lesson after health authorities found
problems at its warehouse last spring.
Melissa Allison
October 15, 2011
 |
Jeff
Babcock, owner of Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea,
has learned a lesson in the
bureaucratic process.
(Photo Courtesy of Mark Harrison/ The Seattle Times )
|
Jeff Babcock, owner of Zoka
Coffee Roaster & Tea, has spent the past month learning a painful and
public lesson in bureaucratic process.
On Sept. 9, the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration posted on its website a warning letter to Zoka, saying
it had found evidence of rodent and insect infestation at the company's Seattle
roastery. (A handy bit of FDA jargon: REP means "rodent excreta pellets.")
The news swept through
Seattle's coffee community and was widely discussed on Twitter, where baristas
often chat. Zoka has three cafes in Seattle, one in Kirkland and two in Japan.
Babcock was mortified. He
knew there had been a problem last spring, when the FDA inspected, but he had
addressed it within days: tossing out bags of coffee, cleaning the plant with
bleach and setting up 32 mouse traps that have caught nothing since April.
"We went after them
like wolves. It was a big deal," Babcock says. "We shut down the
roastery for four days, bleached it, and added all the recommendations the FDA
suggested and then some."
However, while he worked
closely with the state Department of Agriculture on the problem and got its
clearance to resume roasting, Babcock never let the FDA know what he'd done.
He thought the state was
keeping the FDA informed, and that he'd met both agencies' requirements.
"I didn't know I had to
write two letters," Babcock says.
Claudia Coles, the
administrator in charge of compliance and outreach at the state's agriculture
department, says Zoka made significant improvements in the spring and continued
to make improvements all summer.
"Unfortunately, in the
[September FDA] warning letter those changes and updates are not
reflected," she says.
Her agency told the FDA last
spring that Zoka was cleared to roast again but did not give it details that
would take the place of Zoka communicating its efforts directly to the FDA, she
said.
FDA spokesman Alan Bennett
says he can't speculate about whether Zoka would have gotten a warning letter
if it had responded earlier.
Warning letters are meant to
tell companies they're doing something wrong, not to warn the public, Bennett
says. And a company can ask the FDA to post its response to a warning letter on
the agency's website.
Babcock says he has now
replied to the FDA's letter and expects another inspection at some point. He
also plans to ask that Zoka's response be posted on the FDA's website.
Meanwhile, the state
inspected Zoka's roastery on Sept. 14 and gave it a passing score of 93 out of
100. Its last regular state inspection was on Aug. 24, 2010, when it received a
96.
Business has been hurt
"maybe a little," Babcock says. "We had people saying terrible
things that were not true."
The rhetoric cooled when
Zoka posted a response on its website, explaining what had happened.
"We offered anybody to
come look at the roastery any time they want," he says. "My intention
is to make it and keep it the cleanest roastery on West Coast, so it never
happens again."
—