Distributor Could Strip Carroll Gardens Met Foods of its Name

A chronic history of failed health inspections at the Met Foods at 197 Smith Street has prompted the brand owner to issue a dire warning to the shop: Clean up or lose the name.

"This store is not currently up to Met and Pioneer standards," said John Coppola, the vice president of business development and merchandising at White Rose, a food distributor that licenses the Met Foods and Pioneer brands.

While only the state Department of Agriculture could shut down a store, Coppola said the company has final say over whether these independently-operated markets can fly the Met Foods banner.

"White Rose has made a significant investment in the Met and Pioneer banners to help keep them in regulatory compliance," he said. "If conditions do not improve at this store White Rose will threaten to have our banner removed."

Patch reported last week that the local supermarket has failed health inspections 16 times since 2001 due to issues deemed health risks to consumers by state workers.

"We are working diligently with ownership (to) correct their issues," he wrote in an email to Patch on Friday.

The store was re-inspected by the state on March 1, and received a passing grade with no immediate health hazards, Patch learned Friday. Detailed information was not immediately available, but a representative of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, which conducts the inspections, said the store still had some problems.

The inspection found "a number of general deficiencies we would expect to be corrected by the time of our next routine inspection," the spokesman said.

White Rose's own team of food safety inspectors visit the store on a monthly basis, Coppola said, and alert the management to any issues.

However, "each store is independently owned and operated," Coppola said. "We can only make recommendations."

Getting this store to clean up its act had not been easy for White Rose, Coppola said.

"I believe the store manager is not communicating with the owner who is rarely present," Coppola said.

State records indicate the store is owned by Danpoong Corp. and list the CEO as Hyong S. Kim. Efforts to locate Kim have been unsuccessful. As we reported earlier, repeated attempts to speak to the store's manager in person and by telephone were also met with no response.