 |
| Image courtesy News21 National |
FDA inspectors found unsanitary conditions in the Jensen Farms cantaloupe packing facility, where cantaloupes were processed on potato cleaning equipment without using a chlorine wash.
This week, the government filed criminal misdemeanor charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce against Eric and Ryan Jensen, who own the cantaloupe packing facility. Trial is scheduled for December 1, 2013. The brothers each face up to six years in prison and a $1.5 million dollar fine.
This case is the second of its kind brought this year. In February, the government charged four former employees of Peanut Corporation of America with scheming to manufacture and ship tainted peanuts. Their peanuts became peanut butter tainted with salmonella, which killed nine and sickened hundreds in 2009.
For more:
- United States Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, Eric And Ryan Jensen Charged With Introducing Tainted Cantaloupe Into Interstate Commerce (Sept. 26, 2013).
- Michelle Booth, The Denver Post, Jensen Farms Files Bankruptcy in Wake of Cantaloupe Listeria Deaths (May 25, 2012)
- CBS Denver Local, Criminal Charges Filed Against Jensen Farms Owners (Sept. 26, 2013)
- Washington Post (Associated Press), FDA: Criminal charges over tainted Colorado cantaloupe tell farmers to crack down on safety (Sept. 27, 2013).
- James Andrews, Food Safety News, 2009 Peanut Butter Outbreak: Three Years On, Still No Resolution for Some (Apr. 16, 2012).
- 21 U.S.C. § 331
The Law in Life 