FDA Makes an Example of Colorado Farm Responsible for 2011 Listeria Outbreak

The Food and Drug Administration recently filed criminal charges against the owners of Jensen Farms, the family-owned Colorado farm responsible for the deadly 2011 listeria outbreak. On September 24, 2013, brothers Ryan and Eric Jensen were charged with six counts each of misdemeanor Adulteration of a Food and Aiding and Abetting (21 U.S.C. § 331(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2).

Notably, the burden of proof on the misdemeanor charges is relatively low—the FDA need not prove the Jensens acted with knowledge, intent, or even negligence; it must only prove they introduced an adulterated food into interstate commerce. The Jensen brothers pled not guilty to the charges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on September 26, 2013.

The FDA alleges, as it concluded in its previous investigation, that the source of the 2011 outbreak was listeria-contaminated cantaloupes contained in six separate shipments from Jensen Farms’ Granada, Colorado facilities. The outbreak caused the deaths of 33 people and the illness of about 150 more. Since the outbreak, Jensen Farms and the Jensen brothers have already been through an FDA Environmental Assessment and criminal investigation, the bankruptcy of Jensen Farms itself, and, of course, all of the accompanying negative publicity. If convicted of the criminal charges now leveled against them, the Jensen brothers could each face additional penalties of up to six years in prison and a total of a $1.5 million fine.

While FDA enforcement actions, including primarily warning letters and recalls, are relatively commonplace, criminal prosecutions have been rare in the past. The FDA’s indictment of the Jensen brothers, which followed fairly quickly on the heels of its high-profile February 2013 indictment of several Peanut Corporation of America executives in connection with a 2009 salmonella outbreak, may indicate the FDA is on the warpath with food producers and handlers who are in any way responsible for injurious food products, particularly food products that cause an outbreak as deadly and destructive as the 2011 listeria outbreak. The FDA’s recent crackdown sends the message that food producers and handlers at all levels ought to start being extra vigilant about the safe and proper production and handling of their products, lest they, too, be made an example of.

For additional information:

Jensen Brothers Plead Not Guilty to Six Federal Counts in Cantaloupe CaseEnvironmental Assessment: Factors Potentially Contributing to the Contamination of Fresh Whole Cantaloupe Implicated in a Multi-State Outbreak of Listeriosis