.jpg)
Hundreds sick, nine dead. Company emails that suggest profits should come before safety. A raid on two peanut plants that yielded “boxes of evidence,” and a facility found to have mold, roach infestations, and a leaky roof. This was all discovered nearly a year ago, but, as Greg Bluestein reports for the Associated Press, despite the evidence and the indignation from lawmakers, “the criminal probe of one of the largest product recalls ever, no one has yet been charged in the outbreak, which” was linked to the aforementioned illnesses and deaths.The victims of the large salmonella outbreak are not happy with the progress of the investigation. While Bluestein reports that federal prosecutions in food-illness outbreaks are “rare, but food safety experts and legal analysts say the salmonella investigation seemed as cut-and-dry as any case.”
After all, the head of the company being investigated did send an email “to employees amid reports salmonella had been detected in his products to ‘turn them loose’ and said the business ‘desperately’ needed to turn raw peanuts into money.” The company involved, and who the executives being investigated work for, is Peanut Corp. of America. To this point the prosecutors in the case are not indicating one way or another whether charges will be brought. Nine months have passed since the House of Representatives made the emails public.
Even if there is a prosecution, Bluestein reports that such prosecutions usually lead to fines, not time behind bars, but “expert and attorneys sensed criminal charges could be imminent in the salmonella case.” Bluestein writes:
The outbreak was traced to the company's peanut plant in Blakely, Ga., where
Food and Drug Administration inspectors found roaches and mold while trying to
figure out the source of the salmonella. In one e-mail from Stewart Parnell, the
head of the Virginia-based company, he said his workers "desperately at least
need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money." In another exchange, he
told his plant manager to "turn them loose" after products once deemed
contaminated were cleared in a second test.
When testifying before Congress under a subpoena, Parnell often invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. G.F. Peterman is the acting U.S. Attorney where the Georgia plant is located. Peterman declined to comment for Bluestein’s article. Further, the Early County district attorney, Craig Earnest, “said he’s unaware of any developments in the investigation.”
Even if the company did not know, or if the prosecution could not prove, that the company knowingly distributed contaminated food, federal law still allows such cases to be prosecuted.
In the last decade the Sara Lee Corp. was fined and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 2001 following an outbreak of listeria that killed 15 people. Prosecutors did not pursue a case in 2006 against two produce companies following the death of three people from consuming spinach.
While the peanut plants have been closed and the outbreak has been contained, the family members of the victims still want the case carried out.
To read Bluestein’s article for the AP, click here.
Posted: 11/09/09
