Journalists for KING 5,a television station in Washington State, report that federal inspectors complained for years about significant food safety violations at a Yakima plant but their superiors didn’t put a stop to it.
"I thought it was terrible because I have never seen anything like that in my life," said Jerry Pierce, a recently retired United States Department of Agriculture inspector who was assigned to the Snokist Growers plant in 2008. He said he watched Snokist employees “reprocess” and sell applesauce that belonged in the garbage bin.
“It's appalling that the company would take those measures just to make a few dollars," said Wendy Alguard, the USDA inspector who worked at Snokist from 2009 until the summer of last year.
The company went into bankruptcy protection from its creditors on Dec. 11.
The company went into bankruptcy protection from its creditors on Dec. 11.
