The king of Vietnamese bread within the US was fined $250,000 for endangering public well being

The Orange County Register reported that the well-known Vietnamese-origin bread model Lee’s Sandwiches was fined $250,000 for fraud and utilizing untested meat. Not solely that, this model additionally needed to droop manufacturing and be on probation for 4 years.

The Vietnamese-American fast-food chain identified for its espresso, desserts and sandwiches was sentenced on March 18 to federal courtroom in Santa Ana.

Federal officers say the inspection of a model’s retailer was not associated to diners’ complaints, however was the results of an unannounced 2015 inspection of Lee’s Sandwiches’ former kitchen (7180) Lampson Avenue in Garden Grove). ‏In May 2015, inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recalled greater than half one million kilos (250,000kg) of meat from right here for violating meals security pointers.

Specifically, final March, an affiliate of Lee’s Sandwiches pleaded responsible to eight misdemeanor counts of promoting and transporting or providing on the market or transporting untested livestock and poultry merchandise. The firm faces accusations of meals repackaging and unauthorized USDA inspection marks on its meals packages, as a result of the packages have by no means been examined.

Chen Le (Le Chieu), one of many house owners, mentioned that the incident “has nothing to do with consumer safety” or the standard of the meals. “They said we couldn’t repack the meat,” Le mentioned. “We agreed and haven’t done so since 2015.”

Joshua Robbins, the corporate’s lawyer, mentioned the case had largely settled till the top of 2019, when the statute of limitations (the utmost time after an occasion during which proceedings may be commenced) is about to start. completed, and negotiations resumed.

“It was a technical breach that happened more than six years ago and was not related to any food safety issues. But admittedly, the company violated a regulatory requirement for food inspection. As soon as they were told about it, they fixed it,” Robbins mentioned.

Owner Le additionally mentioned: “The incident happened in 2015. Since then, everything has been going well. I am very proud, lucky and must thank customers for always supporting our store. “.

There are about 60 Lee’s Sandwiches shops in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. Therefore, the truth that “Vietnamese Bread King” within the US was fined due to unclear meals origin made thousands and thousands of shoppers confused and frightened as a result of that they had used the meals of this model for a very long time.

About the model Lee’s Sandwiches

Mr. Le Van Chieu (Chieu Le), the founding father of Lee’s Sandwiches, got here to the US and settled in San Jose in 1980. He began taking instructional lessons to be taught English and infrequently purchased meals from vehicles. service earlier than and after faculty.

Outside of faculty, he labored as a gross sales assistant for a meals truck across the metropolis’s factories. Seeing the potential, in 1981, Mr. Chieu purchased his first meals cart. A 12 months later, together with his brother Henry Le, Mr. Chieu based the corporate ”Lee Bros.”, cousin Le, taking the household’s surname as the corporate identify, however needed to change “Le” to “” Lee” for easy reading by Americans.

In addition to traditional Vietnamese bread, they also serve European-style cakes such as baguettes or croissants… In addition, Vietnamese ice cream, Thai tea, espresso and juice, spring rolls are also available. , accompanying desserts, including a variety of Vietnamese tea.

In the US there are numerous manufacturers of Vietnamese bread, however the chain of shops owned by Le Chieu and his household is taken into account probably the most profitable. Today, Lee’s Sandwiches has greater than 60 areas throughout the nation with plans to broaden additional.