Held v. JFC International Inc.

Citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and defendant JFC International Inc. (“JFC”) entered into a Consent Judgment on August 8, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that JFC sold dried seaweed containing arsenic in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, JFC agreed not to sell any seaweed in California after November 30, 2014, unless the seaweed meets the reformulation requirements outlined in Section 2.1 of the Consent Judgment or contains the Proposition 65 warnings provided in Section 2.3.  Should JFC provide written certification that by December 15, 2015, and continuing into the future, all seaweed sold in California qualifies as reformulated, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $71,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.