Whole Foods to close remaining regional kitchens

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market said that it is closing its three remaining regional kitchen facilities that prepare ready-to-eat food for the chain’s stores. The facilities are in Everett, Mass.; Landover, Md.; and Atlanta. The closures will result in the loss of roughly 500 jobs, according to the company.

“As part of our ongoing plan to streamline operations, we have decided to leverage the expertise of our supplier network to create some of the high-quality prepared foods sold in our stores,” Whole Foods spokesperson Heather McCready said in a statement.

An article in Food Safety News posted Jan. 25 noted that Whole Foods’ North Atlantic facility in Everett received an FDA warning letter last year citing a long list of “serious violations,” including Listeria contamination.

“Whole Foods officials touted the 70,000-square-foot North Atlantic kitchen as a state-of-the-art facility when it opened in August of 2012, citing its renewable energy system that generates power using recycled waste cooking oil generated by the commissary’s industrial fryers and Whole Foods Market stores,” the article stated. “Less than four years later, in February 2016, FDA inspectors found Listeria on food contact surfaces there and many other problems.”

To learn more, read the article at http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2017/01/whole-foods-closes-kitchens-under-shadow-of-fda-findings/#.WIt5MFMrKpo.