Category Archives: Business

Business

Abbott recalls baby formulas after four infants reportedly fall ill

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Abbott voluntarily recalled several of its baby formula products after four infants reportedly got sick. The powder formulas were distributed across the country, and possibly exported to other countries, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The powder formulas impacted by the recall include Similac, Alimentum and EleCare. To identify if you have a package affected by the recall, check the number on the bottom of the container. If it starts with digits 22 through 37 and contains K8, SH or Z2, and has an expiration of April 1, 2022, or later, it should be thrown out. All of the recalled formula was produced at the company’s Sturgis, Michigan, facility, the company said. 

Abbott has set up a web page where you can check if your powder formula’s lot number is included in the recall: https://www.similacrecall.com/us/en/product-lookup.html. Consumers can get more information at www.similacrecall.com on how to obtain a refund or replacement, or call Similac customer service at 1-800-986-8540. 

The four infants, located in Texas, Ohio and Minnesota, were diagnosed with bacteria infections cronobacter sakazakii and salmonella Newport and hospitalized. One of the infants may have died of cronobacter, according to the FDA.

The company said it has tested samples of the formula from the plant, as well as samples from the four complaints, and all of the tests have come back negative. The company did say it found evidence of cronobacter in the Michigan plant in non-product areas. 

The FDA said that several environment samples from the plant have tested positive for cronobacter.

Cronobacter bacteria can cause sepsis or meningitis, which can be severe and life-threatening illnesses, according to the FDA. Symptoms of sepsis and meningitis in an infant include poor feeding, irritability, temperature changes, jaundice, grunting breaths and abnormal movements.

Salmonella can cause gastrointestinal illness and fever called salmonellosis, the FDA said. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Severe cases of salmonellosis can cause a high fever, aches, headaches, lethargy, rashes and blood in urine or stool. It can become fatal.

The investigation, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA, is ongoing.

“We want to reassure the public that we’re working diligently with our partners to investigate complaints related to these products, which we recognize include infant formula produced at this facility, while we work to resolve this safety concern as quickly as possible,” said Frank Yiannas, FDA deputy commissioner for food policy and response.

Sophie Reardon

Sophie Reardon is a News Editor at CBS News. Reach her at sophie.reardon@viacomcbs.com

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Business

Family Dollar Facility Had More Than 1,000 Rodents Inside, FDA Says

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  • More than 1,000 rodents were found inside a Family Dollar distribution facility in Arkansas.
  • A Family Dollar spokesperson told Insider that “we take situations like this very seriously.”
  • The FDA started working with the chain for a voluntary recall as 404 stores may have been affected.

A Family Dollar facility in Arkansas found hundreds of rodents inside after a consumer complaint, which prompted an investigation into the facility. 

AP first reported the story. 

In a news release on Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration announced a customer complaint prompted the inspection in the facility in West Memphis, Arkansas. The inspectors reported live rodents, dead rodents in “various states of decay,” rodent feces, dead birds, and bird droppings. 

Judith McMeekin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, said in the news release: “No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility.”

She added: “These conditions appear to be violations of federal law that could put families’ health at risk.”

Family Dollar also issued a news release on Friday that listed the 404 stores that may have sold products from the contaminated facility. It said it was working with the FDA to begin a voluntary recall of affected products. 

The recall concerns purchased made in January and February from Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.

According to the news release, the products impacted include human food, pet food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices, and over-the-counter medications. 

The agency said food in non-permeable packaging “may be suitable for use if thoroughly cleaned,” but all drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and dietary supplements should be discarded.

Kayleigh Campbell, a Family Dollar spokesperson, said: “We take situations like this very seriously and are committed to providing safe and quality products to our customers. We have been fully cooperating with all regulatory agencies in the resolution of this matter and are in the process of remediating the issue.”
 
She added: “We temporarily closed the affected stores in order to proficiently conduct the voluntary recall of certain FDA-regulated products. Our teams are working hard to reopen these stores as soon as possible.” 

The company said in the news release that they were not “aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.” It added that the company is “notifying its affected stores by letter asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product.”

Insider reported in January that a former manager in Arkansas was told by employees that their store had a pest problem. They laid traps, expecting them to capture rats, but instead saw snakes stuck to the traps. 

Family Dollar was bought by Dollar Tree for $8.5 billion in July 2014.

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FDA issues warnings for food items, diet supplements, cosmetics from Family Dollars in six states

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FDA issues warnings for food items, diet supplements, cosmetics and over-the-counter medications from Family Dollars in six states after Arkansas facility inspection uncovered over 1,100 dead rodents

  • A consumer complaint prompted officials to inspect the West Memphis, Arkansas, facility in January, the FDA said in a news release 
  • Inside the building, inspectors said they found live rodents, dead rodents in ‘various states of decay,’ rodent feces, dead birds and bird droppings 
  • After fumigating the facility, more than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered, officials said 
  • Products include human food, pet food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices and over-the-counter medications 

By Associated Press and Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com

Published: | Updated:










More than 1,100 rodents were found inside a Family Dollar distribution facility in Arkansas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday as the chain issued a voluntary recall affecting items purchased from hundreds of stores in the South.

A consumer complaint prompted officials to inspect the West Memphis, Arkansas, facility in January, the FDA said in a news release. 

Inside the building, inspectors said they found live rodents, dead rodents in ‘various states of decay,’ rodent feces, dead birds and bird droppings.

After fumigating the facility, more than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered, officials said.

‘No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility,’ said Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs Judith McMeekin.

The FDA said it is working with Family Dollar to begin a voluntary recall of affected products. 

Those products include human food, pet food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices and over-the-counter medications that were purchased in January or February from Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri or Tennessee.

In a news release, Family Dollar listed the 404 stores that may have sold products from the contaminated facility.

The Family Dollar logo is centered above one of its variety stores in Canton, Miss., Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020

A shopper pushes a cart through a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago

An employee bags a Clorox Co. bottle at a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store

The company said it ‘is not aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.’

The FDA said food in non-permeable packaging ‘may be suitable for use if thoroughly cleaned.’ 

Regardless of packaging, all drugs, medical devices, cosmetics and dietary supplements should be thrown away, officials said.

‘Family Dollar is notifying its affected stores by letter asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product,’ the company said. 

‘Customers that may have bought affected product may return such product to the Family Dollar store where they were purchased without receipt.’

Circulars sit on display at a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago, Illinois

A Family Dollar store in Chimayo, New Mexico, a small hispanic village located between Santa Fe and Taos

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U.S.-listed Chinese companies need Beijing’s approval for secondary listings

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An investor sits in front of a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China.

Thomas Peter | Reuters

BEIJING — If U.S. regulation forces Chinese companies to delist from New York, new rules from Beijing further complicates their path to raising money in public markets abroad.

Since Tuesday, new rules from the Cyberspace Administration of China require Chinese internet platform companies with personal data of more than 1 million users to get approval before listing overseas.

While the rules do not apply to companies that have already gone public, those pursuing dual or secondary listings overseas must follow the CAC’s new approval process, according to a CNBC translation of a Chinese article published Thursday on the regulator’s website.

It’s yet another consideration for international investors looking at Chinese companies.

“The timetable for companies’ overseas listings has become longer, and uncertainty has increased for listing,” said Ming Liao, founding partner of Beijing-based Prospect Avenue Capital, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese remarks.

As regulators and businesses figure out how the new measures will be implemented, institutional investors hope to better understand the government’s thinking by seeing some approvals for overseas listings, he said.

Fallout from Chinese ride-hailing app Didi’s U.S. IPO in late June prompted Beijing to increase regulatory scrutiny on what was a rush of Chinese companies looking to raise money in New York.

Chinese IPOs in the U.S. have essentially dried up in the months since, while existing U.S.-listed Chinese stocks face the threat of delisting in coming years from Washington’s more stringent audit requirements.

Several of these Chinese companies, including Alibaba, have turned to Hong Kong for dual or secondary listings in the last few years. That way investors could swap their U.S. shares for ones in Hong Kong in the event of a delisting.

The Hong Kong option

Only about 80 of 250 U.S.-listed Chinese companies would be eligible for a secondary or dual primary listing in Hong Kong, according to China Renaissance analysis from Bruce Pang and his team in January. That’s due to stringent requirements in Hong Kong for minimum market capitalization and other factors.

The remaining U.S.-listed Chinese companies would likely only have the choice of privatizing, and then attempting a listing in the mainland A share market, the report said. “In practice,” the analysts said, “we think Hong Kong will not be exempted from the cybersecurity process – the door is still open, in our opinion, for Beijing to impose a cybersecurity review on proposed listings in Hong Kong.”

The mainland market is less accessible to foreign investors and is dominated by more sentiment-driven retail investors.

Analysts also point out the Hong Kong stock market doesn’t compare with New York when it comes to trading volume and the price tech companies can get for their shares.

It remains to be seen to what extent cybersecurity scrutiny will apply to future Chinese stock offerings in Hong Kong.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

U.S.-listed, China-based companies that pursue secondary or dual listings in Hong Kong only need the CAC’s review if the regulator identifies a national security risk related to the companies’ products or data processing, said Marcia Ellis, global chair of the private equity group at Morrison & Forrester, Hong Kong.

That’s “a different threshold” from the CAC review required for listings outside of China in markets such as London or Singapore, Ellis said. In these cases, companies with personal data on more than 1

million users would need CAC approval before going public.

“Effectively CAC’s latest statements just clarified a couple of matters and plugged up some potential loopholes,” she said.

The latest CAC regulation does not mention Hong Kong.

However, in Thursday’s article, the regulator said its new overseas listings regulation “does not mean operators in the process of listing in Hong Kong can ignore the relevant network security, data security and national security risks.”

Days after Didi’s listing, the CAC ordered the company to suspend new user registrations and remove its app from app stores, while the regulator began a cybersecurity review over data privacy concerns.

In December, Didi announced it planned to delist from New York and relist in Hong Kong. The company has yet to confirm when that transition would occur, and it’s unclear whether the cybersecurity review has ended.

Shares are down more than 14% so far this year, after a drop of 64% in the roughly six months of 2021 trading.

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Business

After Tesla CEO Elon Musk alleged ‘unrelenting investigation,’ SEC pushes back

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Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks to members of the media while departing from federal court in New York, U.S., on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

Natan Dvir | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Securities and Exchange Commission submitted a letter to a federal judge on Friday responding to allegations by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the agency had “broken promises” and engaged in a “pattern of conduct” amounting to harassment after an earlier settlement agreement.

In September 2018, the SEC charged Musk with making “false and misleading” statements to investors after he announced via Twitter that he had secured funding for a private buyout of Tesla at $420 a share. Following his tweets, Tesla stock went into a period of unusual volatility and the deal Musk alluded to never materialized.

Tesla, Musk and the SEC eventually struck a revised settlement agreement in 2019 to resolve the charges.

As part of the deal, Musk had to temporarily relinquish his role as chairman of Tesla’s board and to pay a $20 million fine individually. Tesla also had to pay a $20 million fine. Musk and Tesla agreed the celebrity-CEO would have the content of his social media posts approved by a securities law expert before publishing them on occasions when they contained material business information.

The $40 million they paid was supposed to be distributed to Tesla shareholders after that.

In a letter sent on behalf of Musk and Tesla to the court Thursday, attorney Alex Spiro suggested the SEC had been ignoring their duty to remit that $40 million to Tesla shareholders.

The SEC’s Stephen Buchholz replied Friday, saying the agency was actually making progress on that task, which was fairly complex. He noted that Tesla had never expressed any concern about this to the agency before and that SEC staff expect to submit a “proposed plan of distribution” to the court for approval by the end of March 2022.

Musk’s attorney, Spiro, also suggested that the SEC was not focused on remittance because it was too busy investigating and issuing more subpoenas to Tesla. The attorney wrote, “The SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government.”

Musk’s battles with regulators tend to be public and messy, occasionally including vulgar taunts. The CEO has expressed his displeasure with the SEC on Twitter on multiple occasions, including in October 2018 when he called the agency the “shortseller enrichment commission,” and in July 2020 when he wrote: “SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s.”

Spiro also suggested that the SEC’s ongoing investigative activity seemed “calculated to chill” Musk’s First Amendment rights.

In a recent financial filing for the fourth-quarter of 2021, Tesla revealed that it had received a subpoena from the SEC late last year. The filings said: “On November 16, 2021, the SEC issued a subpoena to us seeking information on our governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement, as amended.”

Friday’s SEC letter to the court argued that Tesla was not following proper procedures to challenge any subpoena the agency had issued as an independent regulator, aside from the court proceedings.



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Business

Read exactly how Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal for Activision Blizzard came together

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Microsoft shocked the tech and gaming world on January 18th when it announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal, by far the biggest ever in gaming. Activision Blizzard, one of the most storied developers on the planet, had been reeling for months from multiple scandals, including California’s lawsuit accusing the company of creating a culture of “constant sexual harassment,” an explosive Wall Street Journal report suggesting CEO Bobby Kotick was both aware of that harassment and sexually harassed employees himself, and labor protests from Call of Duty workers.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, at the time the company’s Xbox chief, reportedly responded to the accusations from the WSJ article two days later in an email to Xbox staff, saying he was “disturbed and deeply troubled by the horrific events and actions” at Activision Blizzard and that Microsoft is “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments.” But based on a timeline of the acquisition Activision Blizzard has now laid out in its official merger proposal to its own shareholders (via CNBC), it seems that Spencer’s idea of changing the relationship with Activision Blizzard was to almost immediately offer to purchase the troubled company.

And, according to the documents, he wasn’t the only one interested in a deal.

The initial conversation about an acquisition happened between Spencer and Kotick on November 19th, just three days after the WSJ’s report about the Activision Blizzard CEO and a single day after Spencer said told Xbox staff he was “deeply troubled.” It might have even come up as part of the same conversation.

“In the course of a conversation on a different topic between Mr. Spencer and Mr. Kotick, Mr. Spencer raised that Microsoft was interested in discussing strategic opportunities between Activision Blizzard and Microsoft and asked whether it would be possible to have a call with Mr. Nadella the following day,” the document reads. The next day (a Saturday), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was apparently more explicit, indicating that “Microsoft was interested in exploring a strategic combination with Activision Blizzard.”

That kicked off nearly two months of conversations between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard into what would become the acquisition announced on January 18th, and you can read the whole blow-by-blow over the course of ten pages in Activision Blizzard’s filing, beginning on page 31. (The copy of the document embedded at the bottom of this article should begin there.) I’ve always wondered what goes on behind the scenes to make these sorts of mega-acquisitions happen, and the document provides an illuminating look at the wheeling and dealing to pull this deal together.

One thing I found interesting was that Activision Blizzard was in touch with four other companies and one individual about some sort of deal in addition to Microsoft. Disappointingly, they are only named as companies A, C, D, and E, and the individual is named as “Individual B,” so we don’t know who else could have ended up owning Call of Duty. None of those deals went through for various reasons — Company E, for example, said it couldn’t do a full acquisition of Activision Blizzard — and Microsoft was rapidly and aggressively pursuing its deal, getting the terms together before some other companies had even entered the picture.

Activision Blizzard’s SEC filing also includes the terms of the merger agreement, which shows that Microsoft would be on the hook if the merger gets blocked by government regulators — it would pay Activision Blizzard a termination fee ranging from $2 billion to $3 billion if the acquisition is axed due to an “Injunction arising from Antitrust Laws.” If Activision Blizzard’s shareholders do not vote to approve the merger, though, it might have to pay Microsoft a termination fee of $2.27 billion.

While it’s unusual for mergers like these to get actively blocked, we do have a recent example: Nvidia’s $40 billion deal to acquire Arm from SoftBank fell apart due to regulatory challenges. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which sued to block Nvidia’s purchase of Arm, specifically noted in a statement this week that the failed merger “represents the first abandonment of a litigated vertical merger in many years.” While Microsoft says it’s still early in the Activision Blizzard deal — it’s “so early in the process that we’re not yet at a point where we’re getting any real feedback [from the FTC],” Microsoft president Brad Smith told reporters, according to CNN — there’s always the possibility that the FTC and other regulatory bodies intervene.

While Kotick is expected to leave the company should the deal go through, the document also shows he’ll leave with a tremendous fortune either way: with 4,317,285 shares in Activision Blizzard, he stands to gain $410,142,075 based on the $95 per share that Microsoft plans to pay — and he has an additional “golden parachute” worth $14,592,302 if he decides to stay and Microsoft then pushes him out anyway. That doesn’t count his 2.2 million stock options, either, which could be worth hundreds of millions of additional dollars depending on how much they cost to exercise.

The document also reveals that Call of Duty: Vanguard, 2021’s annual release in the mega-popular series, underperformed and failed to meet its fourth quarter projections.

Disclosure: Casey Wasserman is on the board of directors for Activision Blizzard as well as the board of directors of Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

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Short-Term, Long-Term Bitcoin Holder Cost Bases

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The below is from a recent edition of the Deep Dive, Bitcoin Magazine’s premium markets newsletter. To be among the first to receive these insights and other on-chain bitcoin market analysis straight to your inbox, subscribe now.

One of our favorite on-chain indicators recently flipped bullish. The STH (short-term holder) LTH (long-term holder) cost basis ratio recently has started to trend downward over the last two weeks, indicating a shift in market conditions.

The metric is first explained in detail in The Daily Dive #070.

Historically the metric has been one of the most accurate market indicators in Bitcoin, as the relationships between short-term and long-term holders and the acceleration/deceleration of cost basis of the two respective cohorts is quite informative.

The bitcoin price short-term holder and long-term holder ratio’s 14-day change.

While it is true that short-term holders are still underwater in aggregate (relative to the average cost basis of the cohort) the market absorbed lots of realized losses during the last few months, and with a relative accumulation occurring, the STH LTH Ratio has flipped back bullish.

A backtest of the ratio over time speaks for itself:

The bitcoin price short-term and long-term holder ratio’s 14-day change.

Below is a view of the inputs that go into the ratio itself:

The bitcoin short-term holder and long-term holder realized price.

Similarly, last Wednesday in The Daily Dive #144 we highlighted the bullish flip in the delta gradient, another market momentum metric.

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Business

Starlight, star bright: Coca-Cola introduces a 1st-of-its-kind flavor, inspired by space

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Coca-Cola Starlight is a new limited-time product. (Coca-Cola)

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

ATLANTA — Coke’s new flavor is out of this world.

At least, that’s the idea behind Coca-Cola Starlight, a new limited-edition version of the classic soda that comes in regular and zero sugar.

After deciding to discontinue half of its portfolio a few years ago, getting rid of outdated but beloved drinks including Tab and Odwalla, the soda giant has been focusing on promoting its core product, Coke. Starlight is the first beverage from Coca-Cola Creations, a new innovation platform.

Unlike “cherry” or “vanilla,” it’s not immediately clear how “starlight” is supposed to taste. So Redditors who spotted images of the new product online a few months ago shared some theories about the new drink’s flavor. Some say they spotted the mysterious new product on retailer websites ahead of the official launch, slated for next week.

One guessed raspberry, because “a quick Google search says that space tastes like raspberries.” (Astronomers do think that the center of the galaxy may taste like raspberries and smell like rum, according to a 2009 Guardian article. Delicious! And not a bad idea for Coca-Cola, which is launching spiked versions of its drinks left and right.) More recently, a YouTuber who tried the product noted after-tastes of “chocolate (and) graham cracker.” That led another Redditor to guess that the flavor is “s’mores.”

On Thursday, Coca-Cola finally cleared up the mystery. Sort of. The company’s explanation is … well, see for yourself: Starlight is “inspired by space” has “notes reminiscent of stargazing around a campfire, as well as a cooling sensation that evokes the feeling of a cold journey to space,” the company said in a release.

So yeah, maybe s’mores?

Coca-Cola Starlight combines great Coca-Cola taste with a dash of the unexpected, including a reddish hue.

–Coca-Cola

Also, it’s red. Or in the company’s words, “Coca-Cola Starlight combines great Coca-Cola taste with a dash of the unexpected, including a reddish hue.”

To this reporter, after tasting a sample of the zero-sugar version provided by the company, that last sentence just about sums it up. The beverage did not taste like space travel or sitting around a campfire. It did, however, taste like a sweeter version of Coca-Cola. And it is definitely red.

Starlight is getting the full Coca-Cola Creations promotional treatment, which includes a digital marketing campaign featuring pop singer Ava Max.

Coke’s new marketing strategy

Last year, Coca-Cola launched a new brand platform called “Real Magic.” The idea is to take a slightly different approach to marketing Coke — one that tries to reach new consumers by focusing on gaming and music, among other things. Coca-Cola Creations, which will introduce new limited-time “products and experiences across physical and digital worlds,” is part of that platform.

“When we launched ‘Real Magic,’ we wanted to connect with and celebrate the experiences that bring joy to young people today, and that has taken us to an exciting new territory,” Oana Vlad, senior director of global brand strategy at Coca-Cola, said in a statement Thursday.

For Coca-Cola, reaching young consumers is essential because interest in soft drinks has been declining for years. Exciting new campaigns and mysterious products could be a way to get potential new customers to pay attention.

So what does that entail? In the case of Starlight, it means a holographic concert by Ava Max, who has also performed in the gaming platform Roblox. The concert can be accessed via a QR code on the Starlight label. Plus, the sparkly packaging and that reddish hue.

But not everything about Starlight is new. It’s also a nod to when Coca-Cola actually sent a can of Coke to space in the 1980s. But that one just tasted like Coke.

Danielle Wiener-Bronner Business

More stories you may be interested in

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Business

FDA warns consumers not to use certain Family Dollar products in 6 states after discovering more than 1,000 dead rodents at plant

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Several products sold at Family Dollar stores in six states are being voluntarily recalled, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The recall was issued after the administration said it found more than 1,000 dead rodents after a fumigation at a distribution facility in Arkansas.

The recall impacts stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, and products purchased between January 1, 2021, and today.

The recall includes, but is not limited to: 

  • FDA-approved dietary supplements
  • Cosmetics, including skincare products, baby oils, lipsticks, shampoos and baby wipes
  • Animal foods, including kibble, pet treats and wild bird seed
  • Medical devices, including feminine hygiene products, surgical masks, contact lens cleaning solutions, bandages and nasal care products
  • Over-the-counter medications, including pain medications, eye drops, dental products, antacids and other medications for both adults and children

The FDA said it began an investigation into the West Memphis, Arkansas, distribution facility after receiving a consumer complaint in January. Inspectors found live rodents, dead rodents, “rodent feces and urine, evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors throughout the facility, dead birds and bird droppings, and products stored in conditions that did not protect against contamination,” the FDA said. After fumigating the facility, more than 1,100 dead rodents were discovered. 

Between March and September of last year, the company’s internal records showed it found more than 2,300 rodents in the facility, the FDA said.

Days after inspectors arrived at the facility, distribution was stopped. The FDA says it concluded its investigation on February 11.

Family Dollar said in a statement that it is not aware of any reports of illness related to the recall. 

“Families rely on stores like Family Dollar for products such as food and medicine. They deserve products that are safe,” Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs Judith McMeekin said in the FDA’s statement. “No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility.” 

If you bought any of these products, you are advised to not use them and to throw them out, the FDA said. Food in sealed containers is safe to use but should be thoroughly washed. Once you wash the food’s container, you should thoroughly wash your hands as well.

Rodent contamination can cause salmonella and infectious disease. Anyone who purchased these products and experiences health concerns should contact a health care professional right away, the FDA said. 

Sophie Reardon

Sophie Reardon is a News Editor at CBS News. Reach her at sophie.reardon@viacomcbs.com

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FDA warns of Family Dollar products potentially contaminated by rat feces, dead birds

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Dr. Marty Makary discusses the FDA’s decision to remove monoclonal antibody treatment sites in Florida on ‘Fox Business Tonight.’

The federal Food and Drug Administration issued a warning Friday regarding potentially contaminated products at Family Dollar stores in six states.

“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting the public that several categories of FDA-regulated products purchased from Jan. 1, 2021, through the present from Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee may be unsafe for consumers to use,” the agency said in a press release. “The impacted products originated from the company’s distribution facility in West Memphis, Arkansas, where an FDA inspection found insanitary conditions, including a rodent infestation, that could cause many of the products to become contaminated. The FDA is working with the company to initiate a voluntary recall.”

FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo (Reuters)

ICE CREAM RECALL EXPANDED AFTER TRACES OF LISTERIA FOUND

The FDA says that some of the affected products include dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices and over-the-counter medications.

According to the press release, the FDA began an investigation into a Family Dollar distribution facility in West Memphis, Arkansas, following a consumer complaint. The FDA says it observed “live rodents, dead rodents in various states of decay, rodent feces and urine, evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors throughout the facility, dead birds and bird droppings, and products stored in conditions that did not protect against contamination.”

A vehicle drives through the parking lot outside a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Dollar Tree Inc. released earnings figures on March 4. Photographer:  (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

SALMONELLA OUTBREAK TIED TO ONIONS INFECTS NEARLY 900 CONSUMERS

“More than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered from the facility following a fumigation at the facility in January 2022,” the press release stated. “Additionally, a review of the company’s internal records also indicated the collection of more than 2,300 rodents between Mar. 29 and Sep. 17, 2021, demonstrating a history of infestation.”

Family Dollar issued a press release stating that it is “initiating a voluntary retail level product recall of certain products” and is “not aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.”

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“Family Dollar is notifying its affected stores by letter asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product,” the company said. “Customers that may have bought affected product may return such product to the Family Dollar store where they were purchased without receipt.”

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