The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.A.-based seafood wholesaler and retailer Quality Poultry and Seafood (QPS) from importing food into the U.S. for five years.
The agency said in a recent Federal Register notice that it is taking the action because the company was convicted of a felony count for conduct related to importation.
The felony count stems from a federal court case in which Mary Mahoney’s Old French House, a seafood restaurant in Biloxi, admitted to selling frozen imported fish supplied by QPS that it falsely advertised on its menu as locally sourced premium species between December 2013 and November 2019.
At the QPS sentencing hearing in December 2024, Judge Sul Ozerden of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi placed the wholesaler on five years probation for conspiracy to commit misbranding and wire fraud and fined it USD 500,000 (EUR 439,560). The firm was also ordered to forfeit USD 1 million (EUR 879,000) to the U.S. Marshal Service and pay a USD 400 (EUR 352) special assessment fine.
In QPS's plea agreement, the major wholesaler to casinos, restaurants, and retailers admitted to entering into a conspiracy to mislabel foreign seafood and sell it as local varieties of seafood. Through QPS's employees, the wholesaler would purchase frozen seafood from foreign countries with the intent to advertise and sell the seafood as local premium species of seafood, when in fact the fish was not local and not species they were advertised to be, the FDA said.
In February 2025, the FDA sent QPS a notice proposing to debar it for a five-year period and offered it an opportunity to request a hearing. Since the company failed to respond, it waived its rights to the hearing, the FDA said.
