PCA knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted peanuts — 9 died, 28‑year sentence

Peanut Corporation of America was a small private peanut processor founded in 1977 in Gorman, Texas. By 2007 it had $25 million in annual revenue and 90 employees, operating a plant in Blakely, Georgia that manufactured peanut butter, peanut paste and peanut meal sold to hundreds of food manufacturers. Stewart Parnell, who had repurchased the company in 2000, ran it from a converted garage behind his Lynchburg, Virginia home on minimum-wage labour and tight margins.

Between 2007 and 2008, PCA's internal lab tests found Salmonella in its products at least 12 times. Rather than halt production, Parnell ordered the contaminated product shipped anyway, complaining in an email that the tests were 'costing us huge $$$$$.' Inspectors later found fundamental sanitation failures at the Blakely plant — a leaky roof, roach infestation, and equipment not properly cleaned between runs. The FDA did not even know the plant manufactured peanut butter until the outbreak. Some PCA processing had gone on for years without a federal inspection.

In September 2008, the CDC detected a cluster of Salmonella Typhimurium infections. By January 2009 the source was traced to PCA's Blakely plant. The recall was the most extensive in US history: more than 3,900 products from more than 360 companies across 46 states. Kellogg, King Nut, Keebler and dozens of other brands recalled crackers, cookies, ice cream and dog treats. Nine people died and at least 714 were confirmed ill, with the CDC estimating the true toll many times higher. PCA shut the Blakely plant in January 2009 and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on 13 February 2009.

In July 2014, Parnell was indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud and food adulteration. At trial, prosecutors showed Parnell knew the product was tainted and shipped it anyway, even after the outbreak began. In a January 2009 email Parnell falsely claimed 'we have never found any salmonella at all' and asked to use the tainted peanuts, saying they could be 'turned into money.' In September 2015, Parnell was sentenced to 28 years — the largest criminal sentence in a US food safety case. His brother Michael Parnell received 20 years.