WASHINGTON — Hundreds of Family Dollar stores across six states remain closed on Monday after a rodent infestation at a distribution facility led the company to recall a variety of products.
A consumer complaint prompted officials to inspect the West Memphis, Arkansas, facility in January, the FDA said in a news release on Friday. 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, investigators said.
On Friday, Family Dollar issued a voluntary recall of a variety of products that came from the facility and closed more than 400 stores to remove products processed at the contaminated facility.
In an email response, Family Dollar spokesperson Kayleigh Campbell said the company is working hard to remove the recalled products from stores and reopen the affected locations "as soon as possible."
"We take situations like this very seriously and are committed to providing safe and quality products to our customers," Campbell said. "We have been fully cooperating with all regulatory agencies in the resolution of this matter and are in the process of remediating the issue."
The recalled products include food items, pet food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices and over-the-counter medications that were purchased from Jan. 1, 2021, through the present from Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri or Tennessee.
The company said it “is not aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.”
“Families rely on stores like Family Dollar for products such as food and medicine. They deserve products that are safe,” Judith McMeekin, a senior FDA official, said in a statement. “No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility. These conditions appear to be violations of federal law that could put families’ health at risk. We will continue to work to protect consumers.”
The FDA told customers not to use any potentially impacted products and to discard any unused items, regardless of packaging.
The Associated Press contributed to this report