Family Dollar recalled all medical devices, cosmetics, dietary supplements, drugs and food for people and pets shipped since Jan. 1, 2021, to 404 stores after an FDA inspection found “insanitary conditions, including a rodent infestation, that could cause many of the products to become contaminated.”
Not an infestation at the stores themselves — at the discount chain’s West Memphis, Arkansas, distribution facility from which products go to those stores.
A consumer complaint brought the FDA there in January and inspectors left Feb. 11.
“Conditions observed during the inspection included live rodents, dead rodents in various states of decay, rodent feces and urine, evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors throughout the facility, dead birds and bird droppings, and products stored in conditions that did not protect against contamination,” the FDA consumer alert said “More than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered from the facility following a fumigation at the facility in January 2022.
“Additionally, a review of the company’s internal records also indicated the collection of more than 2,300 rodents between Mar. 29 and Sep. 17, 2021, demonstrating a history of infestation.”
The list of stores touches Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Family Dollar, owned by Dollar Tree, knows about rodents.
Any Google search of “Family Dollar” and “rodents” will turn up stories of chain stores around the nation failing in their battles to keep rodents from invading. At one point in 2019, the Miami Herald reported rodents ran strong enough to cause five Florida Family Dollar stores to have failed their most recent inspections, lowlighted by the store in Greenacres that Dollar Tree finally closed.
“Observed chew marks on cans of peanuts and on boxes of powdered chemicals,” intrepid Florida Department of Agriculture Inspector Katie Hansen wrote on one inspection.
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