Salmonella probe moves to N.Y. pistachio plant

COMMACK, N.Y. (AP) — The investigation into a nationwide salmonella scare over pistachio nuts spread Thursday from a California nut processor to its sister plant in New York, where inspectors last month found cockroaches and rodent droppings.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating Commack-based Setton International Foods Inc., which shares key staff and packages food with a plant in central California that earlier this week recalled 2 million pounds of nuts over fears of possible salmonella contamination.

The West Coast plant, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., is the nation’s second-largest pistachio processor. A spokesman for both companies said the California plant supplies all pistachios used in the Long Island processing facility, which makes chocolate- and yogurt-covered nuts and dried fruit.

Last month, New York agricultural authorities discovered nearly two dozen dead cockroaches, rodent droppings and one live cockroach on an ingredient rolling rack inside the Commack plant. It failed its state health inspection.

Production Manager Lee Cohen said Thursday the plant is now spotless and the problems — unrelated to the recall — have been fixed. The facility, which is among the 36 wholesalers that got nuts from the California plant, plans to recall some of its nuts and trail mix in the coming weeks, he said.

“Our facility in New York is beautiful and clean. You can eat off the ground it is so spotless,” Cohen said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We took actions immediately to respond once we heard there was a problem, and have been responsible from the beginning.”

State inspectors went back for a visit Wednesday to swab the plant and take food samples to be tested for salmonella and other pathogens as part of the pistachio recall, said Jessica Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets. The test results are pending.

“Right now, nothing is moving out of that plant. They’re holding all products with pistachios in them,” Chittenden said. “When we were in there yesterday to collect samples, they were cooperative, and we observed that they are working on the issues that we had outlined in our last inspection.”