Congress is looking into allegations that a processing plant in India that supplies major grocery stores has exported shrimp that was in violation of U.S. law.
Joshua Farinella said he managed a Choice Canning shrimp factory in Amalapuram, India, starting in October 2023, but he left the company after about four months on the job because of what he witnessed.
According to Farinella, Choice Canning operated unsanitary offsite “peeling sheds” and routinely approved the export of shrimp tainted with antibiotics, in violation of U.S. food safety law. Company leaders even had a code name for antibiotic-tainted shrimp.
At the factory, migrant workers rarely had a day off, slept in overcrowded, bedbug-infested dorms and were restricted from leaving the compound, Farinella alleged.
Before he left the company, Farinella recorded conversations with senior leadership and captured footage of conditions at the plant and at an offsite peeling facility.
He filed a whistleblower complaint with the FDA and other regulators and shared it with members of Congress.
