Consumer watchdogs, including national food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker, are watching closely as the government reacts to the peanut butter Salmonella outbreak that has been associated with eight deaths and more than 100 hospitalizations since early September.
According to a weekend story by The Associated Press, there are signs that federal agencies and prosecutors could shift to a more aggressive stance with companies who sell contaminated food.
Pritzker, whose Minneapolis-based firm, Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., is representing the families of two Minnesota women who died in the outbreak, told the AP that prosecuting attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice could bring more than civil charges or misdemeanors.
"If a U.S. attorney wanted to prosecute this as a felony, there are enough statutes they could use to charge it out as a felony,'' Pritzker said.
Pritzker has filed the first Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit related to the outbreak for the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, who died December 21 after consuming adulterated peanut butter made by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). Pritzker also represents the family of Doris Flatgard, 87, who died January 4. A second lawsuit complaining of negligence by PCA will be filed soon for the family of Mrs. Flatgard.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said the outbreak was caused by peanut butter and other peanut products made by PCA at its plant in Blakely, Georgia. The facility has been idled and PCA has recalled all the peanuts and peanut products it has made there since January 1, 2007.
After the FDA reported recently that PCA sold products that initially tested positive for Salmonella at the Georgia plant, the agency announced that it has launched a joint criminal investigation of the company with the Justice Department.
The AP story said that if charges are pursued, it would likely be under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The law gave the government leeway to charge food manufacturers if they were responsible for contaminated food. A 1975 Supreme Court ruling gave the government even more leverage by ruling prosecutors didn't have to prove that companies knew the food was contaminated.
Despite the 1975 ruling, it did not lead to much of an increase in prosecutions.
In 1996, there was a conviction against Odwalla Inc. on charges of shipping unpasteurized apple juice that killed a baby. The fine was $1.5 million. Five years later, Sara Lee Corp. was fined $200,000 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of selling tainted meats in a listeria outbreak that killed 15 people, the AP reported.

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