Former owner of a peanut company based in Georgia, Steward Parnell, was sentenced 28 years of life imprisonment after several court hearings. Although U.S. District Court penalized the former executive with 28 years in prison, it is most likely to be more of life imprisonment as the accused is already 61-years-old.
The said salmonella contamination case against Parnell is one of the massive retractions of products in the history of the United States. The salmonella infected peanut butter was manufactured and sold to the public in 2008 and 2009, and after series of investigations against Parnell and his company, the court has proven that Parnell is personally aware of the issue and deliberately approved the delivery of the contaminated goods. The most terrible fact about it is that the executives, along with other employees of the peanut company falsified the results of the lab tests, Bradenton.com reported.
In 2008 and 2009, The Peanut Corporation of America intentionally released their peanut butter contaminated with salmonella, which caused the death of nine Americans. Parnell, along with his brother Michael Parnell, PCA food broker and PCA's ex-quality control manager Mary Wilkerson were all sentenced of imprisonment. Michael will serve 20 years in prison and Wilkerson will have to finish her five year-sentence, with two years of probationary period. The perpetrators may have been sentenced accordingly but it cannot take away the fact that it would not bring back the lives of their loved ones, according to Consumerist.
With this court decision, it should serve as a tough warning to food manufacturers and distributors to make sure they produce clean and safe products. Manufacturers should always maintain sanitized facilities and honest employees to avoid this kind of chaos again.