Held v. North American Food Distributing Company, Inc.

Citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E. and settling party North American Food Distributing Company, Inc. (“NAFDC”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on June 3, 2014, which resolved Held’s allegations that NAFDC sold dried seaweed containing arsenic in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, NAFDC agreed not to sell any seaweed in California after June 15, 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 NAFDC provide written certification that by December 15, 2014, and continuing into the future, all seaweed sold in California qualify as reformulated, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $35,000, 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.