PROVIDENCE, RI. — Rhode Island Beef and Veal, a Johnston, RI-based beef slaughtering facility, was fined $20,000 and placed on three years of federal probation by the US District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy on April 30 for fraudulent activity.

The beef processor and one of its owners, Michael A. Quattrucci, pled guilty to fraudulently claiming that product they processed and supplied to customers had been federally inspected and passed as required by the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA). The company also pled guilty to charges of preparing beef without complying with FMIA inspection requirements as well as fraudulently using an official inspection mark of the Secretary of Agriculture without authorization.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) conducted an investigation of the plant. On Aug. 20, 2019, the agency served Rhode Island Beef and Veal with a notice of suspension and withdrew its inspector.

Eight days later a USDA supervisor visited the plant and found employees packing various cuts of meat and fraudulently applying USDA marks of inspection to the meat products. Additional packaged meat with USDA stickers were found.

A USDA investigator discovered 224 lbs of unmarked ground beef and a 592-lb half carcass of beef that had been freshly cut into primal parts for delivery to a customer in Connecticut who supplies restaurants.

Quattrucci was sentenced to one year of federal probation and fined $1,000 on July 27, 2023.