Peanut Corporation of America has been hit with 76 criminal
charges such as shipment fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
The company was discovered to be in violation of multiple food-safety
standards, including marketing peanut paste contaminated with E. coli bacteria
that cause food poisoning.
The company supplied many other food companies, including Kellogg
which recalled hundreds of products containing peanut paste from Peanut Corp.
The Justice Department alleges that Stewart Parnell, the former owner
of Peanut Corp. of America, and other employees engaged in a multiyear
conspiracy to hide the fact that many company products were tainted with
salmonella.
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 that
peanut products were salmonella-free even when tests showed otherwise, or when
no tests had been conducted at all, the department said.
Two years ago the company chief executive officer testified during a
Congressional hearing that Peanut Corp. was audited by the American Institute
of Baking (AIB) “the most commonly used auditor in the U.S” and received a
SUPERIOR rating.
Maybe, after we get the report from a three-person panel on what happened at XL Foods Inc. of Brooks, Alta., our Canadian law enforcement system might find reason to lay some charges against the owners and managers of that business.
They have done a tremendous amount of damage to the reputation of Canadian beef, and put the livelihood of a lot of innocent farmers and plant employees at risk.
And, of course, the health and wellbeing of customers.
