Feb. 27 (UPI) — Family Dollar Stores has pleaded guilty to storing food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics in a rodent-infested warehouse that shipped products to hundreds of stores across six southeastern states.
The subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc. pleaded guilty Monday to one misdemeanor count of causing FDA-regulated products to become adulterated while being held under unsanitary conditions.
As part of the plea deal, the company has agreed to pay $41.675 million, which the Justice Department said was the largest monetary criminal penalty ever handed down in a food safety case.
“When consumers go to the store, they have the right to expect that the food and drugs on the shelves have been kept in clean, uncontaminated conditions,” Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.
“When companies violate that trust and the laws designed to keep consumers safe, the public should rest assured: The Justice Department will hold those companies accountable.”
Federal prosecutors said the FDA-regulated products were being held at its distribution center in West Memphis, Ark., from where it ships to 404 stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.
In the plea deal, Family Dollar Stores admits to knowing there was a rodent infestation at its distribution center since at least August 2020 and that by the end of the year, stores had reported receiving rodents and rodent-damaged products.
Despite knowing about the issue, the company continued to ship products from the facility until January 2022 when an FDA inspection uncovered “live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces, urine and orders” as well as “gnawing and nesting throughout the facility,” the Justice Department said.
The facility was then fumigated, and some 1,270 rodents were exterminated, according to prosecutors.
Because of the infestation, Family Dollar Stores issued a recall on Feb. 18, 2022, for FDA-approved products shipped from the facility starting from Jan. 1, 2021.
The recall notice warned that there are “numerous hazards associated with rodents including the potential presence of Salmonella” and that use or consumption of such adulterated products “may present risk of illness.”
Family Dollar Stores said Monday that of the money it has been ordered to pay, $200,00 is a fine, while the $41.475 million is a forfeiture that represents the value of the adulterated FDA-regulated products that were held at its distribution center.
The company said it is undergoing a “business transformation” that includes safety procedures and compliance initiatives.
“When I joined Dollar Tree’s Board of Directors in March 2022, I was very disappointed to learn about these unacceptable issues at one of Family Dollar’s facilities,” Rick Dreiling, Dollar Tree chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
“Since that time and even more directly when I assumed the role of CEO, we have worked diligently to help Family Dollar resolve this historical matter and significantly enhance our policies, procedures, and physical facilities to ensure it is not repeated.”
Other conditions of the plea deal require Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to meet corporate compliance and reporting requirements for the next three years, the Justice Department said.
“Products shipped and sold are required to be safe for consumers and the safety of Arkansans and others are extremely important to this office,” U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross for the Eastern District of Arkansas said in a statement.
“Let me be clear: If you conduct business in Arkansas and allow the shipment or sale of unsafe and unsanitary products, you will be held accountable.”