LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (NEWSnet/AP) — Family Dollar Stores, a subsidiary of Dollar Tree Inc., pleaded guilty Monday to holding food, cosmetics, drugs and other items under “insanitary” conditions at a now-closed, rodent-infested distribution center in West Memphis, Arkansas.

Family Dollar faced one misdemeanor count of causing FDA-regulated products to become adulterated while being held under insanitary conditions at the facility, U.S. Department of Justice said.

The company entered into a plea deal 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 department said.

“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.”

A company spokesperson said it cooperated extensively with the Department of Justice investigation.

The plea agreement also requires Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to meet extensive corporate compliance and reporting requirements for the next three years, the DOJ said.

In pleading guilty, the company admitted its Arkansas distribution center shipped FDA-regulated products to more than 400 Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. According to the plea agreement, the company began receiving reports in August 2020 of mouse and pest issues with deliveries to stores. The company said  that, by January 2021, some of its employees were aware unsanitary conditions caused products to become adulterated in violation of federal law.

According to the plea agreement, the company continued to ship FDA-regulated products from the warehouse until January 2022, when an FDA inspection revealed live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces, urine and evidence of gnawing and nesting throughout the facility.

Subsequent fumigation of the facility resulted in the reported extermination of 1,270 rodents.

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