Before it was over, the Salmonella outbreak of 2008-2009 infected hundreds of people, killed nine, and was traced to peanut butter from the Peanut Butter Corporation of America. Seven years later, the CEO of the company, Stewart Parnell, has been sentenced to 29 years in prison for his role in the outbreak. Parnell, his brother, and another executive of PCA knew about Salmonela contamination in their peanut butter and still continued to ship it to consumers. In an email to a plant manager awaiting Salmonella tests, Parnell wrote, "Just ship it anyway."
The CEO was found guilty of a whopping total of 72 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and other federal charges and his sentence is the most severe punishment ever given to anyone in a food illness outbreak in this country. Personally, we have to ask, nine people died and he only got 29 years?! That's only nine more years than this guy got.