August, 1998
Odwalla pleads guilty, is fined $1.5 million
Juice manufacturer Odwalla Inc. pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a record $1.5 million
fine recently over a 1996 E. coli outbreak that killed a Colorado girl and sickened
at least 66 other people.
Federal officials were cited as saying it is the first criminal conviction in a large-scale
outbreak caused by contaminated food and the biggest criminal fine in a food injury
case in the history of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The outbreak was blamed on contaminated unpasteurized apple juice made at an Odwalla
plant in Dinuba, near Fresno. Odwalla, based in Half Moon Bay, pleaded guilty to
16 misdemeanor charges of selling adulterated food products and will serve five years'
probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph O. Johns was quoted as saying, "No mother in this country
should ever need to question the safety of the food she provides to her child."
Odwalla products are sold in 4,600 stores in seven states and western Canada. Since
the E. coli outbreak, the company has been flash-pasteurizing apple juice to kill
bacteria.
A $250,000 portion of the fine will be divided between an advocacy group, Safe Tables
Our Priority, and food safety research centers at the University of Maryland and
Pennsylvania State University.
The Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in a statement that, "The plea
entered today sends a strong message: the government will vigorously prosecute those
individuals and firms who jeopardize the safety of our nation's food supply."
Of the 21 civil lawsuits arising from the incident all but four have been settled
by the company to date.
The Great Lakes Fruit
Growers News