Would you expect someone who produces peanuts to be a total monster?
Of course not, but it looks like this guy may just take the cake.
Stewart Parnell, the former owner of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), was just sentenced to 28 years in prison due to his part in a recent salmonella outbreak in 2008 that infected over 700 people and killed 9.
Wow.
The Department of Justice deemed that Parnell had committed “conspiracy to defraud” consumers. He ordered shipment for peanuts that he knew were tainted with salmonella, and falsified test results on peanuts that didn’t pass salmonella tests.
If that’s not gross enough, he even approved shipments of peanuts that were “partially covered with dust and rat feces.”
This guy almost sounds too much like a movie villain to be real.
While most outbreaks of food poisoning can point to honest mistakes or occasional oversight, this one can’t use that excuse Parnell oversaw everything, and knowingly sent out shipments of tainted peanuts, saying as a justification: “I cannot afford to loose [sic] another customer.”
Parnell is the first food executive to ever be convicted of federal felony charges, and it’s not a moment too soon. His charges include obstruction of justice, fraud, and selling adulterated food.
The infections and deaths caused by this salmonella outbreak spanned 46 states, and the CDC says that only a small number of those actually infected end up reporting their infections, so it’s likely that there were thousands affected by this outbreak.
When they inspected the peanut processing facilities, they found mold, cockroaches, and dirty equipment, and it resulted in a recall of every product they put out since 2007.
While Parnell and his brother were both sentenced to prison sentences, neither of them were tried for the deaths of people killed by the outbreak.
But this is a message to the food industry that cases like this will now be treated with far more consequences. As Judge Louis Sands said:
“These acts were driven simply by the desire to profit. This is commonly and accurately referred to as greed.”
Clearly, that won’t be tolerated anymore.
