A Strip District transportation company this afternoon entered a no-contest plea to charges that it sold spoiled meat to a Washington County grocery store in September 2005.

Thomas Goslin, the owner of American Dispatch Inc., entered the plea before U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone. The case began after investigators with the United States Department of Agriculture got a tip that the company had delivered spoiled meat.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney, Mr. Goslin contacted the owner of Groceries Plus More, a discount grocer in McDonald, and offered him four pallets of what he called "overage," telling the man he needed more space in his cooler. The store agreed to buy the products for $600.

All of the meat, 2,814 pounds, was out of date and out of code, the government said. It included 97 cases of Hillshire Farms Big Franks, 19 cases of Hebrew National hot dogs, as well as cases of bacon and crumbled pork sausage.

Mr. Goslin told investigators it was a rejected order from two years earlier and had been in his cooler since that time.

The meat was discolored and included a milky substance in the packages, Mr. Sweeney said, though Mr. Goslin told investigators that the packaging looked fine and that he never looked inside at the product.

"In our 28 years, this is our first accused incident," Mr. Goslin told Judge Cercone. "The company needed to get it behind it."

After the owner of Groceries Plus More complained to Mr. Goslin about the spoiled meat, he refunded the company's money.

The company was indicted on one count of transporting or selling adulterated meat on Oct. 9, 2007. Sentencing will be held on Sept. 29.