The Jensen Brothers were brought to court on federal charges of shipping six lots of contaminated cantaloupe. Thirty three people were killed, one woman miscarried and 164 people were hospitalized after eating their cantaloupe.
Cantaloupe are supposed to be washed in a chlorine solution to kill any bacteria..The Jensen brothers bought a used washing machine which was made for potatoes. Because potatoes are cooked they are allowed to have more bacteria on them. Even so their was an opening so that the chlorine could be added. They knew about this and did nothing.
Executives from Peanut Corp. of America were previously charged. The Justice Department on Stewart Parnell charged the former owner of Peanut Corp. of America, and other employees engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to hide the fact that many of the company's products were tainted with salmonella.
The U.S. government charged owners of a plant blamed for a 2008 peanut butter salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened about 700. Peanut Corp. of America went out of business after the outbreak.
Prosecutors said the company failed to notify its customers—including several national food companies—when independent lab tests revealed the presence of salmonella. In some cases, company officials fabricated lab results, stating peanut products were salmonella-free even when tests showed otherwise, or when no tests had been conducted at all, the Justice Department said.
The 76-count indictment against Mr. Parnell and ex-employees includes charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and introducing adulterated food into the market.
When I was a restaurant manager if a health inspector he found something wrong, the inspector came back to make sure that we had corrected it.. For several years both of these companies recievedt bad reports with numerous violations but the FDA never inspected to make sure that things had been corrected.
In both of these cases the criminal charges were warranted. But Criminal charges are a two edge sword. In France a grocery store manager can be jailed for selling food contaminated with bacteria, you find some groceries not telling customers when their has been a recall. In some cases food companies are reluctant to mention that their food is contaminated. They don’t want to go to jail.
In the past we rarely brought criminal charges against food company executives. It is wise to use criminal charges only in the most extreme cases. It is also wise for the FDA to start reinspecting when they find conditions that are likely to cause disease.
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