Manufacturer gets 19 Million Dollar fine due to Salmonella tainted breakfast cereals linked to insanitary plant conditions
Food and ingredient manufacturing company Kerry Inc. has recently pleaded guilty to a charge that it manufactured breakfast cereal under insanitary conditions at a plant facility that was linked to a 2018 salmonellosis outbreak.
Salmonellosis is an infection that affects the gastrointestinal tract and is caused by bacteria of the genus Salmonella. If not treated promptly, it can cause severe dehydration and even death in some cases (e.g. infants and pregnant women).
During the 2018 Salmonellosis outbreak, 135 people from 36 US states were found infected by Salmonella Mbandaka. Out of 101 people with information available, 34 were hospitalized. No deaths were reported. Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicated that Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal was the likely source of this multistate outbreak. Consequently, Kellogg Company recalled all Honey Smacks cereal that were on the market within the cereal’s one-year shelf-life.
Going back to the present day, the news that Kerry pleaded guilty for distributing such contaminated cereals produced under insanitary conditions at a facility in Gridley, Illinois, is from a few days ago.
The company agreed to pay a criminal fine and forfeiture amount totaling $19.228 million. If the guilty plea will be accepted by the court, it will constitute the largest-ever criminal penalty following a criminal conviction in a food safety case.
According to the plea agreement, tests performed as part of Kerry’s environmental monitoring program found numerous instances of Salmonella in the environment at the Gridley facility. In the period June 2016 - June 2018, routine environmental tests detected Salmonella in the facility around 81 times, including at least one positive Salmonella sample each month. According to the plea agreement, employees at the Gridley facility routinely failed to implement corrective and preventative actions to address the issue.
In a related case, Ravi K. Chermala, former Director of Quality Assurance at Kerry, who oversaw the sanitation programs at various Kerry manufacturing plants (including the Gridley facility) pleaded guilty to three counts, as he was responsible for: I) the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce; II) the failure in reporting certain information to Kellogg’s about conditions at the Gridley facility; III) the alteration of the plant’s pathogens monitoring program, limiting the facility’s ability to accurately detect insanitary conditions.
Chermala is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 16.
The court set a March 14 sentencing date for Kerry.
“Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder that food manufacturers have a critical responsibility to produce and sell food that is safe for American consumers to eat,” said Assistant Commissioner Justin D. Green for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations. “We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those who put the public health at risk by allowing contaminated foods to enter the U.S. marketplace”, he added.
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