What is the status of Choice Canning’s Best Aquaculture Practices certification?

Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) is a certification program run by the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), an industry body that promotes responsible practices. Previously certified by BAP, Choice Canning’s Amalapuram plant (Unit III) seems to no longer have its certification.

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A Wakefern store in Pittston, Pennsylvania still had frozen shrimp packages from the Amalapuram plant, displaying the BAP logo, on the shelves on May 10, 2024. Reporters confirmed this shrimp came from the Amalapuram plant by looking at the certification number on the BAP logo: P10977. This photo seems to indicate that shrimp that was processed at the Amalapuram plant (Unit III) was still being sold with the BAP logo, although the facility is no longer listed as a BAP-certified producer.

What is the status of Choice Canning’s British Retail Consortium certification?

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is a global certification program that promotes responsible food safety standards. Previously certified by the BRC, Choice Canning’s Amalapuram plant (Unit III) seems to no longer have its certification.

What is the relationship between Choice Canning and the Bapatla plant that recently had a shipment stopped by the FDA?

Between September 2023 and November 2023, in a WhatsApp chat dedicated to “Bapatla Operations,” senior Choice Canning managers continued to discuss the processing and sale of shrimp from a plant in Bapatla referred to as “Unit II.” This is significant because in response to an F.D.A. import refusal for shrimp from the Bapatla plant that cited Choice Canning, the company said it “had nothing to do with the shipment,” and that it had stopped leasing the plant in September.

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In a message on Dec. 11, 2023, Choice Canning director Thomas Jose checked in with other managers about a plan to ship shrimp from the plant in Bapatla (Unit II) to a plant in Amalapuram. This is noteworthy because it implies that Choice Canning still had shrimp at the Bapatla plant in December, even though the company said it had stopped leasing the plant in September.

In email exchanges and WhatsApp messages between November 2023 and January 2024, Choice Canning staff reviewed invoices, tracking logs, and product inventory for shrimp at a factory in Bapatla (Unit II), which Choice Canning claims it did not use after September 2023.

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An invoice dated Nov. 16, 2023, and attached to the November email exchange, lists 15,890 kilograms of shrimp “packed and processed” by “Choice Canning Company Unit II,” the Bapatla plant (Unit II) in Dhamanavaripalem Village. This seems to indicate that shrimp was prepared at the Bapatla plant for customers in November, two months later than when the company said it stopped using the plant.

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In an email sent on Nov. 27, 2023, a Choice Canning staff member shared with other managers a spreadsheet tracking production for Nov. 23 to Nov. 26. The spreadsheet lists 40,707 kilograms of shrimp packaged for shipping at the Bapatla factory (Unit II). (“Repack output quantity” means the amount of frozen shrimp in cold storage at the Bapatla plant that was being packaged for sale, according to whistleblower Joshua Farinella.). This seems to indicate that Choice Canning had shrimp at the Bapatla plant in November.

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In an email sent between Choice Canning managers on Dec. 12, 2023, a staff member shared a purchase order for shrimp “to be shipped from Bapatla.” An invoice was attached. This seems to indicate that Choice Canning managers were aware of pending purchase orders that were to be filled with shrimp from the Bapatla plant (Unit II) up until at least December, three months later than when the company recently said it stopped using this plant.

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An invoice dated Dec. 15, 2023, and attached to the December email exchange lists 8,716 kilograms of shrimp “processed and packed” by “Choice Canning Company Unit II,” which is the Bapatla plant in Dhamanavaripalem Village. This seems to indicate that shrimp was prepared at the Bapatla plant (Unit II) for customers in December, which does not seem to correspond with what Choice Canning recently told reporters in coverage tied to the FDA stopping an antibiotics-laced batch from this plant.

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In WhatsApp messages between senior employees on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17, 2023, Choice Canning CEO JT asked how much “VID” shrimp the company had at its plant in Bapatla (Unit II). COO Gaurav Rathore reported the factory’s current stock. (VID stands for Value Innovation Division, a production unit processing breaded shrimp items.) This seems to indicate that Choice Canning had shrimp at the Bapatla plant in December, several months after when the company says it stopped using the factory.

FDA refusals of shrimp from Choice Canning, 2014 to 2023

How much non-BAP shrimp goes to the plant?

In a letter sent to reporters on March 17, 2024, a lawyer for Choice Canning wrote that the company sources its shrimp from 20 farms certified by Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP). In a later section, the letter said that Choice has also processed raw material from non-BAP certified farms in off-site peeling sheds that it used for a brief period of time.

(See the full letter from Choice Canning here.)

Internal company documents seem to indicate that Choice was sourcing a large quantity of its shrimp from uncertified farms. Farinella said that when he worked at the plant, there seemed to be far more shrimp coming from uncertified farms than could possibly be going exclusively to non-BAP customers. The documents below show the list of official BAP farms that Choice says it uses to supply its shrimp, in addition to invoices from purchases of raw material from uncertified farms.

Where does rejected Choice Canning shrimp go?

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This dialogue from March 2024 is between Joshua Farinella and Basava Sankar, who is affiliated with Khevana Lakshmi Santoshi Biotech. Farinella said this company is the sole firm that takes any and all shrimp waste from the Amalapuram plant. When the Amalapuram plant discovers a batch of antibiotic-positive shrimp, the company said in its letter that it sometimes sells that shrimp as shell waste. Farinella said that if shrimp was ever to be sent for waste it would never be peeled first, because there would be no point in spending the money for workers to peel the shrimp since it was due to be disposed. Such shrimp would only ever be sent as “whole shrimp”, he said. When Farinella asked Sankar if he had ever received “whole shrimp” from the Amalapuram plant, Sankar said no.

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These ledgers record the daily loads of waste removed from the Amalapuram plant by waste contractor Khevana Lakshmi Santoshi Biotech from December 2023 through February 2024.

Where to redirect smelly or discolored shrimp?

Does Choice Canning uphold the highest product quality standards?

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In a December 2023 email to Amalapuram plant production staff, a factory employee alerted the group that undercooked shrimp had been found in a package for Metro, a major Canadian retailer. The employee said the problem had been caught only after the shrimp had already been packed, and that it would be “reprocessed” for Dollar General, an American retail chain.

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In emails spanning October and November 2023, Choice Canning CEO JT and other Amalapuram factory managers discussed a plan to send shrimp that had been rejected by the company’s quality assurance department to a South African company called Neptune. The emails mention that a representative for Neptune had inspected the shrimp and accepted it. Joshua Farinella, the whistleblower, said the shrimp would have been discolored or had other visible issues but Neptune was aware of the products’ defects before shipping.

Choice Canning’s use of off-site peeling sheds

Internal reports, emails, and WhatsApp messages describe Choice Canning using off-site peeling sheds to process shrimp that was later packaged for a customer, HelloFresh, that Joshua Farinella said is supposed to only receive products certified by Best Aquaculture Practices, an organization that forbids the use of off-site sheds. HelloFresh says that 95 percent of the seafood it purchases globally is certified.

Worker tallies and announced or unannounced audits

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An internal spreadsheet emailed to Joshua Farinella each morning by a human resources manager totaled the number of local workers who arrived at the Amalapuram plant for shifts each day, broken down by the labor contractor who had provided them. This spreadsheet does not include headcounts for the migrant workers who lived onsite. The spreadsheet seems to show worker numbers higher than what was reported on the BAP audit. (The dates on this spreadsheet are presented in day/month/year format.)

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An internal spreadsheet emailed to Joshua Farinella each morning by a human resources manager totaled the number of local workers who arrived at the Amalapuram plant for shifts each day, broken down by the labor contractor who had provided them. This spreadsheet does not include headcounts for the migrant workers who lived onsite. The spreadsheet seems to show worker numbers higher than what was reported on the BRCGS audit. (The dates on this spreadsheet are presented in day/month/year format.)

Labor contractor invoice and wage concerns

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In December 2023, Choice Canning managers and Joshua Farinella discussed a wage increase for some of the workers at the Amalapuram plant to the legal required minimum wage. JT, the CEO of Choice Canning, wrote in an email that he was “shocked” that these workers were not already paid this amount. The company’s vice president of human resources Vid**** said that this issue had been raised before with the CEO.

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Some of the workers at the plant voiced broad frustration about delayed payments. In December 2023, a plant engineer wrote to human resources that four other engineers had not shown up to work because of delayed paychecks. A few days later, the human resources executive said the wages had been paid and offered an explanation for the delay.

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In a January 2024 email, a human resources executive at the Amalapuram plant wrote to other managers to alert them that workers had filed a complaint with local police about a labor contractor named Ram****, who the workers said had not been paying them and had been abusing them when they asked about their wages.

Concerns about living conditions at the plant

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In a December 2023 email, an Amalapuram plant manager notified others of a bed bug outbreak affecting more than 500 cots.

The company voices confidence in Joshua Farinella

Emails and transcripts of conversations with Choice Canning’s senior management, including its CEO Jose Thomas (JT), between November 5, 2023, and February 6, 2024, seem to show officials expressing trust in Joshua Farinella.

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