Introduction

In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) noticed a multistate outbreak of Salmonella that eventuallykilled nine and officially sickened 714 (CDC,2009a). It hospitalised at least 166, with totalcases estimated between 11,000 (Cavallaro, 2011, pp601, 607) and 20,700 (Sheth et al, 2011). Publichealth officials traced the outbreak to the PeanutCorporation of America's (PCA) facility in Blakely,Georgia. PCA was a relatively small business thatsold containers of peanut butter and products tosnack food makers, schools, the military, nursinghomes and disaster relief agencies (Leighton,2016).

PCA claimed the problem was isolated, but formeremployee Kenneth Kendrick went on national TV todraw attention to PCA's Plainview, Texas facility.The plant had a flooded basement, rodents, and ahole in the roof that dripped bird faeces on to theproduction area; it had never undergone a sanitationinspection. The recalls from all PCA facilitiesincluded 4,000 products, ‘one of the largest foodrecalls ever in the United States’ (FDA, 2009a).

PCA's CEO, Stewart Parnell, appeared in front of theHouse Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,which released information that PCA had on multipleoccasions knowingly shipped peanut products thattested positive for Salmonella. A representative putrecalled peanut products in a jar wrapped withyellow CAUTION tape, and asked Parnell if he wouldeat any. Parnell pleaded his Fifth Amendment rightnot to incriminate himself. PCA declared bankruptcy;the victims split US$12 million in insurance(Bottemiller, 2010), and PCA leadership split aUS$875,000 insurance policy for their legal bills(Flynn, 2009). The peanut recall was one of severalfood safety events that led to the Food SafetyModernization Act (FSMA) of 2010. In 2013, theDepartment of Justice finally returned a 76-countcriminal indictment against Parnell and other PCAexecutives. They were found guilty, and the courtsentenced Parnell to 28 years.

Although the appeals process is not completed atpublication time (2017), PCA is an important casestudy of food crime. Because many people do not knowwhere their food comes from, this case study isabout a relatively small company that processedpeanuts.