U. S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
FDA Prime Connection

FDA Consumer Magazine (11/95) - Seafood Maker Fined for Misbranding
 
 
                      U.S. Food and Drug Administration
                     FDA Consumer Magazine (November 1995)
 
                     Seafood Maker Fined For Misbranding
 
                                      By
 
                                 John Henkel
 
 
 
When customers bought Miss Sally's stuffed crabs from Sam's Club membership
stores in southern and midwestern states through early 1994, they got a
handsome window package revealing crab shells stuffed with what appeared to be
 
huge chunks of crab meat. Labels listed crab meat as a major ingredient and
bore a bright orange sticker claiming "more crabmeat than ever."
 
But little or no crab meat was in many of those products. Instead, the shells
were stuffed with surimi, a whitefish sometimes used as an inexpensive crab
substitute, which should have been listed on the label.
 
As a result of fraudulent use of the word "crabmeat," David R. Carrington and
his company, Carrington Foods Inc., of Saraland, Ala., were ordered to pay
$78,000 in fines last May 15 after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count
and one felony count of food product misbranding.
 
Carrington, 50, also was sentenced to two years' probation, and his company
received five years' probation. Initially, Carrington was indicted on a felony
misbranding charge, but when he agreed to plead guilty, the court downgraded
the charge to misdemeanor, while retaining the felony charge for his company.
 
FDA first became aware of Carrington's misdeeds in late 1993, when a seafood
industry consultant told FDA investigators that Carrington Foods was not
putting any crab meat in its stuffed crabs. (FDA considers stuffed crabs
without crab meat to be "imitation stuffed crabs.") In response, FDA collected
numerous samples of Carrington's products and confirmed that little or no crab
meat was present.
 
In late November and early December 1993, investigators from FDA's Mobile,
Ala., resident post inspected Carrington Foods and observed its manufacturing
procedures. At the beginning of the inspection, investigators noticed more
than 1,100 pounds of frozen surimi being thawed in the firm's production
areas.
 
Within three hours, plant employees placed the surimi in one of the company's
large coolers, where it remained for the rest of the inspection.
Investigators observed Carrington's production of stuffed crabs for Sam's
Club.
 
The firm used minced crab meat, an inexpensive "mushy" product with little or
no texture, unlike the chunky texture normally seen through package windows in
Miss Sally's stuffed crabs. But because minced crab is a crab product, the
plant appeared to be processing the food legally. Analysis of a stuffed-crab
sample produced during the inspection revealed some crab meat but no surimi.
 
After the inspection, FDA's Nashville district office requested more samples
of Carrington Foods' stuffed crabs. Samples analyzed in FDA's Seattle
laboratory showed Carrington had been substituting surimi for crab meat before
the 1993 inspection, was using minced crab meat during the inspection, and
then switched back to surimi after the inspection.
 
Because the samples clearly documented consumer fraud, in April 1994 the
agency's Office of Criminal Investigations began working with the U.S.
Attorney's Office to bring charges. In December 1994, a grand jury indicted
Carrington and his firm on misbranding charges.
 
Carrington Foods has since lost its contract with Sam's Club.