Hollywood : Food Distributor Charged

Lorenzana Food Corp., a major distributor of imported food products in Los Angeles, has been criminally charged for the second time in two years with health violations at its Hollywood warehouse.

The firm and its president, Solomon U. Lorenzana Jr., 53, of Los Angeles, were charged by City Atty. James K. Hahn in the four-count criminal complaint. Hahn also filed a notice of probation violation stemming from Lorenzana’s conviction in 1988, when he and his firm were placed on two years’ summary probation for health violations at the company warehouse at 1010 N. Virgil Ave.

At an arraignment hearing Monday, Lorenzana requested a continuance so that he could hire a lawyer, said Deputy City Atty. Sue L. Frauens, who heads Hahn’s Consumer Protection Unit. “He appears to be cooperating in an effort to clean up the building,” she said of Lorenzana.

Lorenzana is one of the largest manufacturers of foodstuffs in the Philippines, and its U.S. operation is a major nationwide distributor of food products imported from the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, Hahn said. The firm serves many Los Angeles retail food outlets and stores, Frauens said.

Among the violations was an “out-of-control rodent infestation” that has been a problem since 1983, Hahn said in a statement. Inspectors returned last March to find more extensive evidence, including dried fish and other stored foodstuffs that had been gnawed by rodents, Hahn said.

Hahn said other problems found in the March 9 inspection included food products being stored in rusty containers, in containers without lids and directly on freezer floors without containers.