Chelten House Products of Logan sues iSpice over buggy basil

A South Jersey firm’s lawsuit raises an uncomfortable question: How many bugs — or bug parts — are acceptable in prepared foods?

Chelten House Products Inc. is seeking damages from a supplier after the Logan firm inadvertently used buggy basil to make more than 17,000 cases of pasta sauce.Its lawsuit says a sampling found at least 2 percent of the sauce bottles contained cigarette beetles, making all of the production run “unsalable.”

The suit contends the supplier, iSpice LLC of Alabama, asserted Chelten House “could and should sell” the sauce.

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It claims an iSpice representative said a federal guideline would allow the sale unless each bottle of sauce “contained one of the following:●More than '400 insect fragments'●More than five rodent hairs●More than four larvae (or 10 whole insects)”

An iSpice representative could not be reached for comment.

Its website describes iSpice as “a leading importer, processor, and supplier of the best quality herbs and spices from around the world.”

In its lawsuit, Chelten House said the spice firm's position on insects in food was "unconscionable."

But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does allow prepared food to contain bugs, rodent hair and other contaminants — up to a limit.

A list at the FDA's website sets "defect action levels" described as "levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use that present no health hazard."

The list does not include basil.

However, it sets the level for crushed oregano at an average of 300 or more insect fragments or two or more rodent hairs per 10 grams.

The list also details acceptable levels of fruit fly eggs and maggots, as well as mold, in tomato products, including sauce. It does not mention other insects, such as cigarette beetles, whether whole or in fragments.

Chelten House, which occupies more than 250,000 square feet in a Bridgeport facility, makes food products for sale under private labels.

Chelten House seeks damages from basil business

Its suit does not specify the amount of money being sought from iSpice, but requests treble damages for alleged violations of New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act.

The suit was filed Feb. 27 in Camden federal court.

According to the suit, Chelten House first encountered problems in April 2023 with a shipment of 2,000 pounds of dried basil from an iSpice warehouse in East Brunswick.

It says Chelten House found bugs In the basil before using it, isolated the shipment, and reported the problem to iSpice, which sent a “recovery shipment” in early August.

A sample from the recovery shipment passed inspection at Chelten House, and some of the basil was used to make the pasta sauce, the suit continues.

But Chelten House determined the next day that basil from the recovery shipment “was, in fact, infested with insects.”

The initial inspection missed the bugs because they were in the larval stage, according to the suit.

It says "many" of those eggs hatched between the inspection and the manufacturing run, "and became part of the finished pasta sauce."

It says a shipment of parsley, which had accompanied the recovery shipment from the East Brunswick facility also was found to have insects.

Among other claims, Chelten House contends iSpice falsely represented that its East Brunswick warehouse was climate-controlled to prevent infestations.

It also says the spice company has refused to pay for the Chelten House sauce "because there weren’t enough whole beetles or beetle fragments in each bottle."

The suit notes Chelten House never shipped the pasta sauce to customers, thus avoiding “an expensive recall process and the attendant damage to its business reputation.”

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Chelten House says cigarette beetles made its pasta sauce 'unsalable'