Arkansas meat and poultry distributor sentenced

7/11/2000-According to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the president of a Fort Smith, Ark., meat and poultry distribution company plead guilty in federal court to violating the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection. Donald Tankersley, president of White Dairy Ice Cream Co., Inc., doing business as Tankersley Bros. Institutional Foods, was sentenced Feb. 17 in the U.S. District Courts Western District of Arkansas on two misdemeanor counts of allowing meat and poultry products to become adulterated by rodent gnawing, feces, and filth. The court ordered Tankersley to pay $l,000 for each count and placed him on probation for one year for each count. This action is the result of an investigation conducted by FSIS compliance officers. For more information, go to the FSIS web site.