BOSTON - Yi Soon Bakery, Inc. of Allston, Mass., and its owner, Kung Hung, have settled allegations that they violated the Federal Meat Inspection Act by making meat pastries and selling them to wholesale customers without having the pastries inspected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Food preparation businesses may lawfully purchase USDA-inspected meat and use it to make food products that they sell to retail customers. But if the food products are to be sold wholesale, they must be reinspected by USDA.
In December 2012, the United States sued Yi Soon Bakery and Hung, alleging that they had bought and used USDA-inspected beef and pork to make pastries, which they had sold to a food store in Lowell, for resale without the required USDA reinspection. The bakery and Mr. Hung signed a consent decree in which they agreed to stop selling uninspected food products to wholesale customers.
The United States later discovered that the bakery and Mr. Hung had violated the consent decree by selling 187 pounds of uninspected meat pastries to Asian food markets in Worcester, Amherst, and Boston for resale. In March 2015, the government notified the court of the violation. The bakery and Mr. Hung then agreed to settle.
Under the terms of the settlement, Mr. Hung has agreed to pay the United States a civil penalty of $30,000, to sell Yi Soon Bakery, and to cease working in the food industry altogether. The purchaser of the bakery will be advised of the government’s lawsuit, the settlement, and the legal prohibition on selling uninspected meat food products to wholesale customers.
The announcement was made today by Untied States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Alfred V. Almanza, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers of Ortiz’s Civil Division.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
