Federal prosecutors said J&L Grocery held food and drug products in insanitary conditions.
An Alma wholesaler and discount grocery store operator reached an agreement last week with the federal government in a case that may turn your stomach.
If you recall, last November, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration seized more than $400,000 worth of FDA-regulated products from J&L Grocery LLC because they were being stored in insanitary conditions, according to a news release for the FDA.
An FDA inspection last year at the 5.2-acre property found “multiple live and dead rodents, rodent nesting, live racoons, live cats, a dead possum, animal feces, and urine-stained products in and around the company’s seven warehouses and sheds used to store food, medical products and cosmetics,” the release said.
We’re going to spare you most of the photo exhibits. You’re welcome.
J&L had several buildings on the property and most of those were used for its wholesale business, said its attorney, J. Dalton Person of the law firm Jones Jackson Moll McGinnis & Stocks of Fort Smith.
J&L also operated a deep discount grocery store, but none of the FDA’s allegations involved that operation, J&L’s court filings said.
Person said J&L, which is owned by James T. White and managed by Lori A. Layne, decided to close the store at the end of June.
J&L agreed to destroy the items seized about nine months ago. The consent decree ends a forfeiture complaint filed by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.
“Once they destroy all the goods, … they’re going to move forward and do something that does not involve FDA-regulated goods,” Person said.
He said they might open another liquidation facility and probably call it J&L Liquidators.
“But I don’t think that name is certain yet,” Person said.
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