CHICAGO –  The US Attorney’s Office in Chicago filed a civil lawsuit against Kingdom Farms Wholesale Meats Inc. and Kieran Moran, the company’s president and owner, on allegations the company mislabeled and misbranded meat and poultry products despite repeated warnings to stop.

Among the allegations in the complaint, court documents state that on or about Dec. 11, 2012, and other occasions, Kingdom Farms violated the Federal Meat Inspection Act by: removing unlabeled packages of meat products from properly labeled shipping containers and applying labels bearing federal marks of inspection without authorization; reusing shipping containers bearing federal marks of inspection without authorization; and removing meat products from properly labeled shipping containers and repackaging the items in a container without federal marks of inspection and required labeling.

The complaint states that Kingdom Farms offered the mislabeled items for sale. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the US Dept. of Agriculture issued a warning to the company regarding the violations in March 2013.

Moran and Kingdom Farms also are accused of receiving “…sample plates containing beef and poultry products that were adulterated and misbranded; and offering for sale approximately 115 lbs. of meat products that were adulterated, misbranded and non-federally inspected,” according to court documents. The complaint states that the company violated the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) by removing unlabeled poultry product from a fully labeled shipping container, causing it to become misbranded. FSIS, again, issued a warning to the company.

The US Attorney’s Office is seeking a permanent injunction that bars Kingdom Farms from, among other activities, “…directly or indirectly transporting, selling, offering for sale or transportation, or receiving for transportation in commerce, poultry, poultry food products, meat, and meat food products that are misbranded…” in addition to court costs and attorney fees.

The case is United States of America v. Kingdom Farms Wholesale Meats, Inc. et al, case number 1:18-cv-04155, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.