According to the Department of Justice’s October 21 press release, a former quality assurance director for food manufacturer Kerry Inc. plead guilty to three misdemeanor offenses related to the manufacture of a breakfast cereal linked to an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning in 2018.

Kerry Inc.’s former Director of Quality Assurance oversaw the sanitation programs at various Kerry manufacturing plants, including a facility in Gridley, Illinois that primarily manufactured Kellogg’s Honey Smacks breakfast cereal for Kerry’s customer, the Kellogg Company.

In June 2018, FDA and CDC announced that an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella cases in the United States could be traced to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal produced at Kerry Inc.’s Illinois facility. In response, Kellogg’s voluntarily recalled all Honey Smacks manufactured at the plant since June 2017. In July 2018, Kerry Inc. received a Warning Letter from FDA, which detailed how Agency investigators found “serious violations” of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation as detailed in 21 CFR Part 117. The present charges against Kerry Inc.’s former QA director stem from the 2018 multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections from Honey Smacks cereal, which sickened 135 people in 35 states.

In pleading guilty, the former QA director admitted that between June 2016 and June 2018, he directed subordinates to not report certain information to Kellogg’s about conditions at the Gridley facility. In addition, he admitted that he forced subordinates at the Gridley facility to alter the plant’s program for monitoring for the presence of pathogens, thus limiting the facility’s ability to accurately detect insanitary conditions and bacterial contaminations. “Food safety professionals cannot conceal potentially dangerous problems from customers or government regulators,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

Special Agent Lynda M. Burdelik of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations also said that this prosecution “reinforces that if an individual violates food safety rules or conceals relevant information, [FDA] will seek to hold them accountable. The health of American consumers and the safety of our food are too important to be thwarted by the criminal acts of any individual or company.”

The sentencing date is scheduled for January 30, 2023. Further information about the case will be posted to the Department of Justice’s Information for Victims in Large Cases website, available at https://www.justice.gov/largecases.