Meat&Poultry -- June 2014 - 10

Business Notes

Columbus Foods breaks
ground on $28M expansion
Construction is set to begin on a 55,000-sq.-ft. expansion of salame curing and processing operations at Columbus Foods, Hayward, Calif. The company recently
broke ground on the project, which should be completed
by July 2015, according to plant officials.
Columbus Foods is investing $28 million in the ex-

capacity by an additional 50 percent to meet demand,"

pansion, which will feature robotics in material handling.

said Timothy Fallon, CEO and president of Columbus

The salame curing rooms will utilize specialized air han-

Foods. "Our traditional recipes, which utilize premium

dling units. Processing capacity will be 250,000 lbs. of

cuts of pork, proprietary spice blends and a lengthy cur-

salame per day.

ing process, are being recognized by consumers looking

"The growth of Columbus' salame products continues
to gather momentum, and we saw a need to increase our

to experience authentic, superior-tasting products in the
salumi category."

Student to sue Wolverine Packing
A Michigan college student fi led a lawsuit May 27 claim-

ranging from April 22 to May 2. Wolverine Packing said

ing she was sickened by E. coli tainted beef allegedly pro-

the ground beef tested negative for E. coli when it left the

duced by Wolverine Packing Co, according to news reports.

company's Detroit facility.

In the lawsuit, Rachel Tamminga said she fell ill April

Tamminga is seeking $25,000 in damages and com-

23 after eating ground beef at a restaurant in Farming-

pensation for other harm. Marler Clark, a Seattle law firm

ton, Mich., and another location. She was forced to leave

specializing in food-safety litigation, fi led the complaint

school during fi nal exams, according to the complaint.

along with co-counsel Michael Heilman of Taylor, Mich.

Wolverine Packing recalled 1.8 million lbs. of ground

After initial reports that the contaminated meat was

beef on concerns the product was contaminated with E.

distributed to four states - Massachusetts, Michigan,

coli O157:H7. Public health officials with the Atlanta-based

Missouri and Ohio - the US Dept. of Agriculture's Food

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 11 peo-

Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said the meat may

ple were infected by the pathogen with illness onset dates

have been distributed nationwide.

FPL Food re-opens Augusta plant after fire
FPL Food LLC re-opened its beef harvest facility in Au-

Ga., and Columbia, SC. Approximately 500 people work

gusta, Ga., on May 27, four weeks ahead of schedule.

at the Augusta plant which is the slaughtering and boxed-

F PL Food closed t he

beef facility for the vertically integrated company.

200,000-sq.-ft. plant for

"We thank our employees and customers for their pa-

repairs after an electrical

tience throughout the time taken to repair the harvest

fi re broke out in the ceiling

facility," said an FPL Food spokesman. "We also thank

over the harvest floor in early

all partners involved for repairing the facility in an effi-

April. The plant sustained

cient and professional manner allowing us to minimize

roof damage above the facility's kill floor. The repairs took
eight weeks to complete. Meanwhile, the company made
plans to move production to its other plants in Thomasville,

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our down time."
Cattle supplies were not interrupted, although the company was forced to modify production schedules.

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