(The Center Square) – Family Dollar Stores, Inc. will pay $41.7 million to settle claims it shipped unsanitary products from a rodent-infested warehouse in West Memphis, Arkansas, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.
The settlement is the largest monetary criminal penalty in a food safety case, according to the DOJ. The company, a subsidiary of Dollar Tree, Inc., agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of causing FDA-regulated products to become adulterated while being held under insanitary conditions.
Company officials said some employees were aware of the rodent problem in January 2021. The company continued to ship products from the warehouse until January 2022 after an investigation from the Food and Drug Administration showed evidence of “live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces, urine, and odors, and evidence of gnawing and nesting throughout the facility,” according to DOJ news release. The warehouse served 404 stores in Alabama,
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