Feds Shut Kosher Large Warehouse in Queens After Rat Infestation
Customers can wave goodbye to KoJel kosher foods products like instant noodle soup and pudding — at least for a little while.
V.I.P. Foods, the Queens food supplier that manufactures the products, has had roughly $1 million worth of inventory seized due to rodent infestation, The New York Times reported.
The federal Food and Drug Administration seized the products from the company’s warehouse in Ridgewood, Queens, on March 19.
Inspectors had visited the site several times between October and February. The Times reported that a complaint filed in federal court last month stated that on October 25, inspectors arrived to find “over 1,200 rodent excreta pellets, at least four live and dead mice, and rodent-gnawed containers of food.” Rodent urine stains were also found around the food.
“V.I.P.’s warehouse was a picnic ground for rodents, and the company failed utterly in its obligation to provide food deemed safe for human consumption,” Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
The inspectors also found evidence the rodent population in the 50,000-square-foot warehouse was ready to explode, as nests were found hidden in pallets of food, the New York Post reported.
V.I.P. Foods sells Kojel products to various supermarkets in up and down the East Coast, and as far West as Illinois, Ohio and Minnesota, the New York Post reported, adding that the company also says it sells products to restaurants, retirement homes, and caterers.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors say they will take further legal action against V.I.P. to force it to comply with health regulations.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30