Fancy food ain’t safe food – Maine seafood edition

A Hancock seafood processor has been shut down due to food safety violations dating as far back as 2004, according to documents filed last week in U.S. District Court.

Sullivan Harbor FarmMill Stream Corp., which does business as Sullivan Harbor Farm, and its owner, Ira Frantzman, became the subject of a consent decree of permanent injunction after inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found serious violations at the company’s processing facility, where its smoked fish products were made.

The company’s products include refrigerated, vacuum-packed cold and hot smoked salmon, charr, mussels and scallops sold mostly to wholesale customers in Boston and Washington, D.C., but also at its retail store and at the Ironbound Restaurant and Inn in Hancock.

The complaint alleges that the company violated federal food safety law by selling fish products “that have been prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or may have been rendered injurious to health.”

According to the complaint, the FDA has been inspecting the facility since 2004 and has cited repeated violations of food safety law and regulations.