Bakery, 3 Officials Plead No Contest on 7 Violations

A Los Angeles baking firm and three company officials pleaded no contest Monday to seven state Health and Safety Code violations.

The Food for Life Baking Co., production manager Arthur Bartlett, 43, and owners Robert Torres, 40, and Charles Torres, 45, were ordered to pay $17,339 in fines and investigation costs by Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Diana Wheatley.

The defendants, who were also placed on 36 months’ probation, had been charged last October by the city attorney’s office with 121 violations involving allegedly unsanitary conditions in the bakery at 3580 Pasadena Ave. The seven counts to which they pleaded dealt with improper flooring and failure to put protective screen coverings on windows.

In agreeing to dismissal of the remaining charges, authorities took into account a recent inspection that “demonstrated a good faith effort . . . to clean up the facilities,” said Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

At the time the charges were filed, City Atty. James K. Hahn announced that photographic evidence depicted living insects in flour bins and rodent droppings on pallets of sealed flour sacks.

Defense counsel Roger Rosen questioned such characterizations.

“There was no finding and no admission to any type of sanitary violation,” Rosen said Monday.

Food for Life bakery products have been distributed at Ralphs markets under both the Food for Life and Natural Food Mill labels, the city attorney’s office said. The bakery has also prepared products for Trader Joe’s stores, Hadley’s Markets and Hunza House, officials said.

The bakery now is in “substantial compliance” with state health and safety regulations, Hahn said.