The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Fong Kee Tofu Co. Inc., Yan Hui Fong, the firm’s co-owner and chief executive officer, and Jen Ying Fong and Suny Fong, co-owners and corporate officers, to prevent the distribution of adulterated tofu and other soy food products.
The department filed a complaint on January 23 at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The complaint alleges that the defendants have a history of processing soy food products under insanitary conditions. As detailed in the complaint, the company receives, prepares, processes, manufactures, labels, packs, holds and distributes soy food products including soy drinks, firm tofu, soft tofu, fried tofu balls (oil bean cake) and soybean cake. The complaint also alleges that Yan Hui Fong, Suny Fong and Jen Yin Fong are Fong Kee Tofu’s corporate officers with the authority and responsibility for preventing and correcting violations of federal law at the company.
In conjunction with the filing of the complaint, the defendants agreed to settle the litigation and to be bound by a permanent injunction that requires Fong Kee Tofu to cease all operations and requires that if the defendants wish to resume manufacturing and distributing food in the future, the FDA first must determine that the firm’s manufacturing practices have come into compliance with the law.
According to the complaint, FDA inspectors in 2014 observed pigeons on top of plastic-wrapped raw soybean pallets and they observed insects flying around the area used to process firm tofu. The complaint further alleges that employees were observed using utensils that had not been properly sanitized in food production and packing tofu without washing or sanitizing their hands after coming into contact with insanitary objects. In addition, according to the complaint, residue was observed on equipment used in processing tofu even after the equipment had been cleaned. Under federal law, food manufacturers are required to comply with current good manufacturing practices to ensure that all food distributed into interstate commerce is not adulterated.