Original Post
FDA: Chinese Food Distributor's Warehouse Is Rodent-Infested Hellscape New York-based supplier cited for birds, rat excrementMack Gelber Dec 30th 2014 9:48AMOrdering Chinese food on Christmas is nearly as hallowed a tradition as watching It's a Wonderful Life and bickering with your extended family. But if a recent FDA citation of one New York-based food supplier is any indication, you're going to want to stay away from your local takeout joint well into the new year.
What are we talking about, exactly? Let's just say that the list of health code violations perpetrated by Brooklyn's New Yung Wah Trading Co. is long enough that, at first glance, it resembles some kind of free-verse poem. A poem studded with frequent, colorful references to rat poop. Here's a sample from the report:The full report also mentions drainage issues in the warehouse, with areas of standing water (yum!), as well as "marshy soil and large rocks." The whole thing goes on for a good 2,000 words, and the full effect is something like staring at one of those panoramic Hieronymus Bosch paintings of hell.Among the findings in the inspection of the company's McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, warehouse:
- A rodent's nest with multiple rodents in a plastic-lined box in a cooler that had thawing rib meat on top of melons.
- Four dead rodents.
- Birds flying throughout the warehouse.
- A pallet of pineapples in boxes gnawed on by rodents, an apparent nest they made and rodent feces.
- Rodent feces in a cooler.
- A path of rodent feces leading to a hole in a bag of flour.
- Rodent feces, urine and nests in and around bags of monosodium glutamate.
- Workers smoking while handling food being prepared for distribution.
So what's the worst part? Because New Yung Wah's website consists solely of an "under construction" message, any Chinese restaurant within their distribution area (they serve the East Coast and Midwest with centers in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) is potentially under suspicion when it comes to selling rodent-infested, excrement-laden, standing-water-and-marshy-soil-soaked meat. That's an unfair situation for restaurant owners to be in, especially those who source their food from another supplier.
Still, do you really want to play Russian roulette with products that may have served as actual rat nests? Did you know rats even had nests before reading this? Happy nightmares.
Still like eating ramen noodles while you code instead of a good home cooked meal? I'll never forget the time when my brother told me about the time someone found a dead rat in a cup of ramen noodles, and that was back in '93. 20+ years lager, I guess not much has changed.
I enjoy cooking, and I think I do a good job of it. Although sometimes we don't have time to do it (or just can't), I think cooking ahead of time sounds like a better idea even more so.
Shogun.
