He Knew It Was Contaminated. He Shipped It Anyway.

When a shipment was held up for salmonella testing, Stewart Parnell had a simple answer: "Just ship it. I can't afford to lose another customer."

The Cover-Up

Parnell ran the Peanut Corporation of America out of Blakely, Georgia. His own internal lab flagged salmonella contamination at least 12 times between 2007 and 2008. Rather than pull the product, he ordered the batches shipped. He also complained in an email that safety testing was "costing us huge $$$$$." When results came back negative on a later test, he told staff to "turn them loose."

What Inspectors Found

When FDA investigators reached the Blakely plant, they found a leaky roof, cockroaches - dead and alive - mold on the walls, and gaps large enough for rodents to enter. Former employees described seeing a family of mice in a tote of peanuts. The contamination had already spread. Nine people died and at least 714 fell ill across 46 states. More than 3,900 products - crackers, cookies, ice cream, pet treats - were recalled from more than 360 companies in one of the largest food recalls in US history.

The Trial

Parnell faced 67 federal felony counts, including knowingly shipping adulterated food, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. His lawyers argued he was not motivated by greed - his daughter told the court he "never gave himself a raise." Prosecutors played the emails. A jury convicted him on most counts in 2014, acquitting him on one count of wire fraud.

The Sentence

In September 2015, Parnell stood in a Georgia courtroom and heard the judge hand him 28 years behind bars - the longest sentence ever imposed in a food safety case in US history. His brother Michael, a food broker who worked on behalf of PCA, got 20 years. Quality control manager Mary Wilkerson received five.

Why It Matters

Food safety experts called the Parnell sentence a turning point. For decades, executives who shipped contaminated food faced fines or company penalties - rarely personal prison time. The PCA case showed that knowingly poisoning the food supply could cost a CEO decades behind bars. The FDA used the case to push for tougher inspection authority, which Congress granted in the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 - the most sweeping reform of US food safety law in over 70 years.