Filthy Conditions in Meat Warehouse

FORT WORTH, Texas (CN) - A Texas state trooper found 148 goat carcasses stacked inside Halal Import Food Market's unrefrigerated van and ordered it to Halal's warehouse to be inspected, where health inspectors found that 102 dead goats and boxes of organs had mysteriously disappeared in transit, the state says.

The state believes that Zamzam Supermarket and World Food Market received the missing meats, according to the complaint in Tarrant County Court.

The somewhat nauseating complaint describes Halal's warehouse as filthy, with "dead birds and bird droppings on food products ... live birds flying around warehouse and resting on food products," trash piled 6 feet deep in places, "numerous dead rodents, numerous rodent droppings along with gnawed materials and debris," meat rotting on a grinder, "various uncovered and exposed foods in direct contact with wet floor along with debris and trash in produce/dairy cooler," and "cigarette butts, rotting fruit, peels, partially eaten chicken and other food" around the warehouse.

The goat carcasses bore no stamps showing that they were from inspected sourced, and the carcasses in the van were touching "seatbelts, peeling and fraying fabric overhead from van ceiling, and a rusty van floor," the state says.

Texas sued Halal Import Food Market, Zamzam Supermarket, World Food Market, Adel, Sam, Nihaya, Jamal and Shoukry Mohammed Qaddura and Riyad Ibrahim.

Halal Import Food Market has been cited for food safety violations since 2001.

Texas wants the contaminated food destroyed and fines of up to $25,000 per day from each defendant for each violation of safety regulations.

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