On Friday, at Peoria Federal Court in Illinois, the Tralee based multinational food and ingredients giant pleaded guilty to a single “strict liability misdemeanor” charge that it had distributed ‘adulterated’ cereal that was made under insanitary conditions at a subsidiary facility in Gridley, Illinois.
The charge arose from a 2018 incident in which 135 people, in 36 states, were infected with salmonella that was subsequently traced to a batch of Kellog’s brand ‘Honey Smacks’ breakfast cereal made at the Gridley facility by Kerry Group’s subsidiary on behalf of the well-known cereal company.
The infected people ranged in age from less than one to over 95 years of age.
When details of the outbreak emerged Kellogg’s voluntarily recalled all Honey Smacks manufactured at the plant since June 2017.
The outbreak resulted in 34 people being hospitalized though no deaths were reported as a result of it, according to the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The facility at the heart of the outbreak was shut down by Kerry Group in late 2018.
In a public statement issued on Friday the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that ‘Kerry Inc’ has agreed to pay a criminal fine and forfeiture amount totalling $19.228 million.
The DOJ said that it the guilty plea is accepted by the court – which is due to rule on the case on March 14 – the fine and forfeiture will be the largest-ever criminal penalty imposed in the US arising from a food safety case.
In Friday’s statement the DOJ said that in a related case Ravi Kumar Chermala, who had worked as a Director of Quality Assurance for Kerry until September 2018, has pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts arising from the 2018 outbreak.
The DOJ said that Mr Chermala oversaw the sanitation programs at various Kerry owned manufacturing plants in the US, including the Gridley facility.
“In pleading guilty, Chermala admitted that between June 2016 and June 2018, he directed subordinates not to report certain information to Kellogg’s about conditions at the Gridley facility” said the DOJ.
“In addition, Chermala admitted that he directed subordinates at the Gridley facility to alter the plant’s program for monitoring for the presence of pathogens in the plant, limiting the facility’s ability to accurately detect insanitary conditions”.
The DOJ said that between June 2016 and June 2018, routine environmental tests had detected Salmonella in the Gridley plant approximately 81 times, including at least one positive Salmonella sample each month.
“According to the plea agreement, employees at the Gridley facility routinely failed to implement corrective and preventative actions (CAPAs) to address positive Salmonella tests,” said the DOJ.
Mr Chermala is scheduled to be sentenced in relation to the charges on February 16.
On foot of the plea deal Kerry Group said it had “reached a resolution” with the DOJ “in connection with a 2018 product recall”.
“Kerry regrets the unacceptable practices and failures that occurred at Gridley. Arising from the issues, conduct and practices that occurred there, the company made the decision to permanently close the plant. The company also undertook a comprehensive review of its food safety practices, policies and oversight, with a particular focus on ensuring adherence to group standards and governance,” said Kerry Group in a statement.
“Though the issues at Gridley were plant-specific in nature, Kerry has invested and continues to invest significantly in all aspects of its food safety and quality processes and to further embed safety as a central pillar in everything that it does,” the statement concludes.
