Shawn K. Stevens, a food safety attorney who works for a number of food industry companies, has a column on Food Safety Tech in which he writes that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "intends to pursue criminal investigations against any food company executives or quality assurance (QA) managers involved in cases in which a link is made between a positive sample collected by the agency from a food facility or product and a foodborne illness."
Indeed, Stevens writes, the FDA intends to work with the US Department of Justice "to aggressively enforce food safety laws," and that "criminal prosecution of food companies is a priority moving forward."
While probes are ongoing into companies such as Chipotle and Blue Bell, Stevens writes that "the most important lesson to be learned is that food companies must be prepared to better control pathogens in their environment in order to protect themselves from criminal prosecutions."
Indeed, Stevens writes, the FDA intends to work with the US Department of Justice "to aggressively enforce food safety laws," and that "criminal prosecution of food companies is a priority moving forward."
While probes are ongoing into companies such as Chipotle and Blue Bell, Stevens writes that "the most important lesson to be learned is that food companies must be prepared to better control pathogens in their environment in order to protect themselves from criminal prosecutions."
- KC's View:
-
I can see a whole new subset of TV shows coming out of this. "Law & Order: FDA." "CSI: C-Stores." But seriously, the companies that do not pay attention to this are making a big mistake. The c-level execs who do not take this seriously are guilty of a kind of malpractice, and the lawyers who represent them and do not warn them about how much danger they're in ... well, they ought to find another profession.
