CEO Jailed for Life in Food Contamination Case
[Posted on: Thursday, September 24, 2015]

In one of the more severe sentences ever in history for food safety violations, the CEO of the peanut butter company accused of selling salmonella contaminate peanut butter products was given a 28 year sentence for this event. His partner in the company, who is also his brother, was sentenced to 20 years while their quality assurance manager was given 5 years. This ends the 7 years saga of this foodborne disease outbreak that led to 9 death and 714 infections across 46 states and one of the largest food recalls in American history since peanut butter is a component of multiple popular snacks. Food contamination is a common occurrence with one of six American getting food poisoning every year. Since this outbreak, FDA has passed stricter rules for food GMP, and announced expansion of its food GMP inspections. But this sentencing was not because of violation of GMP rules but due to extensive evidence of negligence, willful release of contaminated food, and extremely unhygienic practices at a food manufacturing facility which led to contamination. The accused tried to lie to investigators, obstruct investigation, hide evidence, and generally callous attitude towards distributing contaminated food. This case should act as a warning to all food manufacturers, particularly the food supplement industry where similar practices are prevalent. While arguably this sentence seems very harsh but it does indicate that in incidence of food contamination damage control and recall practices play a bigger role in the final penalty compared to the incidence of contamination itself. Good GMP training and crisis management practices go a long way in the regulated industry.

Expert Opinion: Mukesh Kumar
VP, RA, Amarex Clinical Research