Food Safety Attorney Fred Pritzker Calls for Prosecution of Food Poisoners
A recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection of Basic Food Flavors Inc. found that the Las Vegas-based food ingredient maker continued to ship product after its facility tested positive for Salmonella, a potentially deadly bacterium.
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When FDA discovered the situation at Basic Food Flavors Inc., a recall was issued of Basic Food Flavors HVP flavor enhancer that has touched off a sweeping domino pattern of food recalls by users of the ingredient. No Salmonella infections have been reported, but the number of HVP-related recalls has topped 100 and could run into the thousands.
While the FDA weighs the appropriate regulatory response, victims of food poisoning and advocates for a stronger food safety system in the United States are hoping for criminal sanctions.
National food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker said in a statement this week that any food executive responsible for knowingly shipping product contaminated with a human pathogen should be incarcerated.
"It' simple,'' said Pritzker, whose Pritzker Olsen law firm is a leading practitioner of foodborne illness litigation. "Test your product. Hold your product until test results are completed. If testing reveals your product is adulterated, don't ship it. If you violate any or all of these three steps, you go to jail.''
Pritzker said families he represents who lost loved ones in last year's peanut-driven Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak are still seething over the lack of criminal prosecution in that case. More than 700 people across the country were sickened and nine people died, including Shirley Almer of Perham, Minnesota and Nellie Napier of Medina, Ohio.
Jeff Almer, Shirley's son, and Randy Napier, Nellie's son, have become tireless advocates for food safety, testifying at Congressional hearings and speaking at conferences. The two men also were featured in an excellent television report on the one-year anniversary of the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) outbreak.
The three-part series by ABC13-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia, quoted Napier as saying he feels like his mother was -- in effect -- murdered.
Pritzker said the family members are rightfully incensed about the lack of criminal prosecution, thus far, against individuals at PCA. Shirley Almer, for instance, had twice beaten cancer only to succumb to food poisoning wrought by contaminated peanut butter.
The FDA found evidence that the company shipped peanuts from its Blakely, Georgia, plant that first tested positive for Salmonella.
When wrongdoers know or should know their products are contaminated and ship them anyway, they should be treated like common criminals, Pritzker said.
"If Bernard Madoff can be sent off to prison for economic crimes, why shouldn't we jail executives who allow deadly pathogens into the food supply.''
