Whole Foods Goes From Defrauding Consumers To Endangering Them
Henry I. Miller
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The USDA organic designation has nothing to do with food safety, nutrition or quality.
Consumers deserve honesty, respect and integrity. They’re not getting it from Whole Foods.
By Henry I. Miller and Jeff Stier
Like a petty criminal who progresses to increasingly more serious crimes, Whole Foods Market WFM +0.38%’ violations of state and federal law have been escalating. They’ve gone from defrauding their customers to adopting food preparation practices that actually endanger them. And that’s not all.
Known sardonically as “Whole Paycheck” for their outrageous prices, Whole Foods has been guilty of widespread cheating. New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) investigators found last year that the company systematically ripped off unwitting customers by “routinely” overstating the weight of pre-packaged foods–including meats, seafood, dairy and baked goods. The co-CEO called these thefts “mistakes.”
That travesty followed the $800,000 settlement the previous year with the City Attorneys of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and San Diego after Whole Foods stores were found not to be accounting for the weight of containers at their already over-priced salad bars.
Whole Foods bills itself as “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store,” even trademarking the term.
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Yet in a devastating June 8 warning letter–one of the most severe compliance actions that the FDA has at its disposal–the FDA said Whole Foods was manufacturing, packaging and storing food in ways that promoted contamination with microorganisms that cause food poisoning.
Among the long list of serious problems identified during multiple inspections in February at a 70,000-square foot facility that supplies prepared foods and other products to 74 stores across eight states were foods like pasta and mushroom quesadillas prepared or stored in places where condensation was dripping from ceilings, a doorway and a fan.
In addition, the company kept dirty dishes near food, did not supply hot water at some hand-washing sinks and allowed high-pressure hoses used for cleaning to spray food-preparation areas.
Last year, Whole Foods had to recall batches of its curry chicken salad and a pasta salad from East Coast stores after the products were found during a routine inspection of the same plant to be contaminated with a nasty bacterium called Listeria.
So Whole Foods is certainly not the safest grocery store for consumers. But does it live up to the claim that it is the healthiest?