KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The owners of a local grocery store were indicted Thursday for allegedly selling dirty meat to customers.

A livestock dealer and the owners of Queens Market at 1447 Independence Ave. were named in a 22-count federal indictment. It claimed the owners of Queens conspired with Anstine Enterprises to sell thousands of pounds of adulterated meat that were "unfit for human consumption."

The indictment also alleged that the meat was labeled as having passed federal inspection, but that the meat was never actually inspected.

In all, the indictment claimed that more than 9,000 pounds of meat not inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were offered for sale from late November 2002 through early March 2003. The meat included inedible pork lungs that were mislabeled as pork livers, the indictment said.

The names of those indicted are Kim Huynh, of Kansas City; Nham Pham, of Overland Park, Kan.; and Rick Anstine, of Holden, Mo.

The indictment said the tainted meat came from Anstine, who operates a business called the Kingsville Hog Market.

The indictment said Queens Market primarily caters to the Vietnamese community.

Nham Pham told KMBC that he thought this was legally taken care of a long time ago, and that the whole mess revolved around one order of meat that was thrown away as soon as a problem was identified.

Anstine did not return KMBC's calls.