A former Georgia peanut executive was sentenced to 28 years in prison Monday for presiding over a coverup that led to a deadly salmonella outbreak, marking what legal experts believe to be the most severe punishment to date in a U.S. food-safety case.
A U.S. district judge in Albany, Ga., sentenced Stewart Parnell, the former owner of Peanut Corp. of America, after a jury found him guilty last year on dozens of felony counts, including conspiracy to conceal that many of the company’s products were contaminated with salmonella. Between 2008 and 2009, nine people died and more than 700 others fell ill after eating peanut butter or other products made at the company’s plant in rural Georgia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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By:
JESSE NEWMAN
