PROVIDENCE – A beef slaughterhouse in Johnston admitted to defrauding customers and violating the Federal Meat Inspection Act, U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Zachary A. Cunha announced Thursday.
Rhode Island Beef and Veal and one of its owners, Michael A. Quattrucci, pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding customers by using an official inspection mark of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on its product without authorization while falsely claiming the beef had been properly inspected.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service suspended Rhode Island Beef and Veal and withdrew its inspector on Aug. 20, 2019, according to court documents. Eight days later, a USDA supervisor visited the plant and found employees packing various cuts of meat and applying USDA marks of inspection to the product with no inspector present. Additionally, packaged meat with USDA stickers attached was found stored in five bins.
A USDA investigator visited the plant a day later and photographed illegally marked packages of beef from the day before. He also noted 224 pounds of unmarked ground beef and a 594-pound half-carcass of beef that had been freshly cut into primal parts for delivery to a customer in Connecticut who supplies meat products to restaurants.
Quattrucci is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26 and Rhode Island Beef and Veal is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 7.
