Warning Letter Record: Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (2026-07-14) — Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated
Letter issued · posted to fda.gov .
Subject as published: Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated
TL;DR
In short: The FDA issued a warning letter (CMS #728680) to Friend's Stable and Orchard, Inc. on July 14, 2026, following a California Department of Food and Agriculture inspection conducted March 23-25, 2026, at the Ojai, CA facility. The inspection found that Navel oranges, Valencia oranges, and Pixie mandarins were adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because untreated animal manure was applied in direct contact with growing fruit, violating 21 CFR Part 112 (Produce Safety regulation); the firm proposed corrective actions and stated it would conduct inspections to determine whether affected fruit should be discarded. The FDA requested written response within 15 working days detailing corrective steps and documentation, warning that failure to address violations may result in seizure and injunction.
Argus analysis
# FDA Warning Letter Analysis: Friend's Stable and Orchard, Inc.
**Company and Violation**
Friend's Stable and Orchard, Inc., a citrus farm in Ojai, California, received a warning letter from the FDA's Human Foods Program on July 14, 2026, following an inspection conducted March 23–25, 2026. The FDA determined that the farm's Navel oranges, Valencia oranges, and Pixie mandarins are adulterated because they were prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions and may have been contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health. The core issue involved untreated animal manure observed in direct contact with growing fruit in multiple tree canopies.
**Regulatory Citations**
The violation centers on 21 CFR Part 112, the Produce Safety Regulation, specifically 21 CFR 112.56(a)(1), which requires biological soil amendments of animal origin be applied in a manner that prevents contact with covered produce during application. The adulteration finding also invokes section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which addresses products prepared under insanitary conditions, and section 301(vv), which prohibits non-compliance with the Produce Safety Regulation. These citations require growers to maintain documented protocols preventing pathogenic contamination during cultivation.
**Response Timeline and Industry Implications**
Owner Robert G. Kittredge was required to respond within 15 working days of receipt, detailing corrective actions and prevention measures. The farm submitted an April 22, 2026 response proposing inspection of affected fruit to determine whether produce should be removed from distribution. The FDA indicated it will evaluate the adequacy of corrective actions during the next inspection. Peer compliance officers in produce cultivation should monitor whether enforcement escalates to seizure or injunction, and note how the agency assesses the farm's fruit-removal protocols and amendment application modifications.
Severity context
Critical severity. Typically reserved for data integrity, sterile-product CGMP, or repeat violations — matters that historically precede injunctions, consent decrees, or import alerts.
Regulatory background
FDA Warning Letters are administratively non-binding but signal that recurring non-compliance may escalate to injunction, seizure, import alert, or Application Integrity Policy invocation.
What peer compliance teams typically do next
Most compliance officers at peer companies use a Warning Letter against a named entity as a checklist for their own CAPA program. Common steps: pull the verbatim FDA letter; map each cited 21 CFR section against the team’s SOP library; confirm CAPA coverage; brief the QMR (Quality Management Review) on whether the cited subject matter is in scope for the next internal audit. The 15-business-day response window applies to the cited entity, not to peers — but a documented internal review against the cited subjects is what regulators expect to see if a peer is later inspected on the same topic.
Excerpt from the FDA Warning Letter (public domain, 17 USC §105)
WARNING LETTER Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. MARCS-CMS 728680 — July 14, 2026 More Warning Letters Warning Letters About Warning and Close-Out Letters Delivery Method: Via Email Product: Food & Beverages Recipient: Recipient Name Robert G. Kittredge Recipient Title Owner Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. 3562 Grand Ave. Ojai , CA 93023-9307 United States Issuing Office: Human Foods Program United States July 14, 2026 WARNING LETTER CMS # 728680 Dear Mr. Robert G. Kittredge: The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority, inspected your farm located at 3562 Grand Ave., Ojai, CA 93023-9307 on March 23, 2026, through March 25, 2026. Our inspection revealed a serious violation of the Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption regulation (Produce Safety regulation), Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 112 (21 CFR Part 112). Based on the inspectional findings, we have determined that your Navel oranges, Valencia oranges, and Pixie mandarins are adulterated within the meaning of section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(4)], in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health. In addition, failure to comply with the Produce Safety regulation is a prohibited act under section 301(vv) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 331(vv)]. You can find the Act and FDA’s regulations through links on FDA’s home page at http://www.fda.gov. The inspection resulted in FDA’s issuance of a Form FDA 4056 (FDA 4056), Produce Farm Inspectional Observations. To date, we have not received a response to the issued FDA 4056; however, we did receive your written response, dated April 22, 2026, to a call we held with you on April 1, 2026. We address your response below. During the inspection, the FDA investigator observed the following significant violation of the Produce Safety Regulation, 21 CFR Part 112: 1. You did not apply untreated biological soil amendments of animal origin in a manner that does not contact covered produce during application, as required by 21 CFR 112.56(a)(1). Specifically, the investigator observed raw (b)(4) manure in the canopy of citrus trees and in contact with growing oranges. During the inspection, you stated that the untreated manure is applied (b)(4) to the (b)(4) rows meant to (b)(4) ( (b)(4) rows). You stated that raw (b)(4) manure is applied using a (b)(4) that distributes it (b)(4) of the row. The (b)(4) distributes manure using (b)(4) . The investigator observed untreated (b)(4) manure in the canopies of at least (b)(4) Valencia orange trees in (b)(4) rows in the (b)(4) of Block (b)(4) . Additionally, (b)(4) of those same trees in (b)(4) rows had untreated (b)(4) manure observed sitting directly on growing oranges. We acknowledge that during the…
Excerpt only. The full verbatim Warning Letter is the source of truth — always read the original before regulatory decisions.
The verbatim FDA Warning Letter is the source of truth. Always read the original before acting on any analysis or summary on this page.
Read the full letter on fda.gov ↗Frequently asked questions
- What is the regulatory background for a Warning Letter warning letter?
- FDA Warning Letters are administratively non-binding but signal that recurring non-compliance may escalate to injunction, seizure, import alert, or Application Integrity Policy invocation.
- What is the standard FDA response window for a warning letter?
- FDA warning letters typically require a written response within 15 working days of receipt, outlining the corrective and preventive actions the company will take.
- Has Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. had FDA enforcement actions before?
- This is the only FDA Warning Letter Argus HQ has on file for Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. as of 2026-08-04. Argus ingests new FDA enforcement records daily.
- What FDA violations was Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. cited for?
- The FDA Warning Letter to Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (issuing office: Human Foods Program) cites: Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated. Classification: Warning Letter.
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methodology
The analysis above is produced by Anthropic Claude Haiku 4.5 against the verbatim FDA Warning Letter excerpt and is brand-voice lint-checked before publish. The TL;DR is the same summary that ships in the customer email digest. Severity is auto-classified by Argus from the subject string and letter body using rules documented in lib/ingestion/fda-warning-letters.ts.
Argus HQ is informational only. Summaries and analyses are AI-generated and may contain errors, misclassifications, or omissions. Verify against the FDA source URL above. Argus HQ is not a law firm, accounting firm, or regulatory agency, and provides no legal, accounting, financial, medical, or regulatory advice.
Compiled by Argus HQ Research from FDA primary sources · Reviewed by Andy Gaber, Founder
Cite this record
Reusing this data in reporting or research? Here’s a ready-made citation.
Argus HQ Research (2026). Warning Letter Record: Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (2026-07-14) — Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated. Digital Empire Holdings LLC. Retrieved from https://argushq.ai/fda/warning-letter/fda-wl-friend-s-stable-and-orchard-inc-2026-07-14-warning-letter
"Warning Letter Record: Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (2026-07-14) — Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated." Argus HQ Research, Digital Empire Holdings LLC, 2026, argushq.ai/fda/warning-letter/fda-wl-friend-s-stable-and-orchard-inc-2026-07-14-warning-letter.
Argus HQ Research. "Warning Letter Record: Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (2026-07-14) — Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated." Digital Empire Holdings LLC. Accessed August 5, 2026. https://argushq.ai/fda/warning-letter/fda-wl-friend-s-stable-and-orchard-inc-2026-07-14-warning-letter.
@misc{argushq_argushq_ai_fda_warning_letter_fda_wl_friend_s_stable_and_orchard_inc_2026_07_14_warning_letter_2026,
title = {Warning Letter Record: Friend’s Stable and Orchard, Inc. (2026-07-14) — Food/Prepared Packed or Held Under Insanitary Conditions/Adulterated},
author = {{Argus HQ Research}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Digital Empire Holdings LLC},
url = {https://argushq.ai/fda/warning-letter/fda-wl-friend-s-stable-and-orchard-inc-2026-07-14-warning-letter},
note = {Accessed: August 5, 2026}
}