FDA's Disturbing New Egg Report

If you're squeamish, you may want to stop reading now. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration detailed findings from recent investigations scrutinizing conditions at nine Iowa farms responsible for distributing salmonella-tainted eggs throughout the country. What they found is truly disturbing. According to inspectors, neither Wright County Egg, Quality Egg, nor Hillandale Farms distributors operated in compliance with Salmonella enteritidis prevention plans. Investigators found uncaged chickens roaming amid piles of manure, swarms of flies and maggots, and rodents running amok. Inspectors also found salmonella in the water used to wash the eggs at one Hillandale-owned facility. "The uncaged birds were using the manure [pile] ... to access the egg-laying area," reads the report, which details that at some locations "live and dead flies were too numerous to count." In a statement, Hillandale said that it is "in the process of responding to the FDA's written report to provide further explanation and clarification of what was observed."