RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) – Vermont’s largest slaughterhouse was closed down by federal officials this month due to a series of food safety violations, officials said.

Fresh Farms Beef Inc. suspended operations earlier this month. No one directly involved would explain the company’s alleged violations.

“The facility received a notice of suspension December 17 from our agency because of multiple violations in their food safety systems, which led the agency to be concerned about adulterated product possibly reaching consumers,” said Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the Food Safety Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Eamich said USDA officials are working with Fresh Farms to correct the violations so the slaughterhouse could reopen.

Fresh Farms Beef owner Nick Greeno said, “We are doing everything in our power to comply with what they want.” Greeno said that in nine years he’d never before been shut down.

The Food Safety Inspection Service handles inspections of meat, poultry and egg products. Because Fresh Farms Beef ships some of its meat out of state, the slaughterhouse falls under federal jurisdiction.

“It’s the establishment’s responsibility to maintain their facility,” Eamich said. “It’s our regulatory responsibility to make sure those measures are being upheld.”

Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said the problem may have been more of a record-keeping issue than a safety issue. “It would seem to me, if it’s just a paperwork issue, that what you want to do is reopen that plant and get the paperwork in as soon as you can but not shut down a plant that is impacting Vermont farmers and a guy who needs the business,” Sanders said.

Jenny Nelson, a spokesman for Sanders, said the problem began during the week of Dec. 12 when meat processed at the Rutland plant was shipped to a location that hadn’t been approved by the USDA.

Secretary of Agriculture Steve Kerr said slaughterhouses were usually closed because of concerns over bacteria, but he didn’t know what was taking so long to reopen Fresh Farms.

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Information from: Rutland Herald, http://www.rutlandherald.com/