3-10-2024 11:55pm

FSN: Family Dollar Stores to Pay Hefty Penalty for Roach-infested Storage

S RENEE GREENE Editor

By News Desk on February 27, 2024

Largest ever monetary criminal penalty in food safety matter

Family Dollar Stores LLC pleaded guilty Monday to holding food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics under unsanitary conditions related to a rodent infestation at the company’s West Memphis, AR, distribution center.

At the same time, criminal information unsealed in federal court in Little Rock, AR, charged Family Dollar with one misdemeanor count of causing FDA-regulated products to become adulterated while being held under insanitary conditions.

The company, a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc., entered into a plea agreement that includes a sentence of a fine and forfeiture amount totaling $41.675 million, the largest-ever monetary criminal penalty in a food safety case. The plea agreement also requires Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to meet robust corporate compliance and reporting requirements for the next three years. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome T. Kearney presided over the company’s guilty plea and sentencing at Monday’s hearing.

“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,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “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.”