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T03-47 |
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A joint inspection by the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has resulted in a sweeping indictment of three executives of LaGrou Distribution System, Inc., a Chicago-based company that operates cold storage food warehouses.
The five-count indictment, announced on June 18, 2003 by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Chicago, Illinois, charged the executives with the federal crime of storing more than 22 million pounds of adulterated meat, poultry and other food products in unsanitary, rodent-infested conditions. This was one of the largest amounts of rodent-adulterated food products ever found to be held in storage in the U.S.
The FDA/USDA inspection, which was carried out a year ago with the participation of the Illinois Department of Public Health and City of Chicago Health Dept., also found ten million pounds of FDA-regulated fish, nuts, butter and milk fat, valued at approximately $10,000,000, in unsanitary conditions. These products were seized together with the adulterated meat and poultry, which are in the purview of the USDA.
The executives, Jack Stewart, President and chief Executive Officer; Michael Faucher, Director of Sales; and David Smith, former warehouse manager, were charged with criminal conspiracy to violate federal public health standards.
Although there were no reports of illnesses caused by the seized products, and they posed no immediate public health risk, no food products have been allowed in or out of the facility since the seizure without government authorization. Currently, 36 civil consent decrees condemning and forfeiting various seized articles of FDA-regulated food have been executed. Pursuant to these decrees, the claimants have reconditioned their products at their own cost under the FDA supervision.
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