Dive Brief:
- Judges presiding over the appeals of the case against Austin "Jack" DeCoster and Peter DeCoster asked frequent questions throughout the oral arguments from attorneys on both sides last week. The DeCosters were each sentenced to three months in prison for the Quality Egg salmonella outbreak.
- The main question was whether this case is considered "strict liability," in which there is no finding of fault.
- According to the DeCosters' attorney, constitutional protections under due process require mens rea, a person's mental state at the time of committing a crime that proves the crime was intentional. Those protections prevent those without mens rea from imprisonment.
Dive Insight:
After pleading guilty, the DeCosters agreed to pay fines totaling $7 million, plus $83,008 in restitution. However, they are appealing the prison sentences handed down for their admission of holding corporate office at the time when Quality Egg distributed contaminated eggs.
The concepts of "strict liability" and "criminal state of mind" came before Congress late last year. Legislators considered whether to require proof of a defendant's state of mind for federal criminal cases, which would impact food safety misdemeanor cases. The FDA doesn't currently have to prove a criminal state of mind to bring strict liability misdemeanor charges against defendants in food safety cases.
Many executives have pleaded guilty in these cases simply because they were in charge at the time of the food safety incident, according to Food Safety News. Requiring a criminal state of mind could make it more difficult to charge executives in food safety crimes. The FDA or other prosecutors would need proof of advanced knowledge, such as the emails in the Peanut Corporation of America salmonella case. That case is also in appeal.
Prison sentences have become more common for food safety cases in the past year, particularly since the Department of Justice vowed to crack down on infractions that risk consumers' health. In prior cases, the standard was namely large fines, such as ConAgra's $11.2 million settlement last year for its federal criminal charge in a salmonella outbreak linked to the company's peanut butter. If criminal state of mind becomes a requirement for prison sentences, the industry could see the courts revert back to fines rather than jailtime when prosecutors don't have sufficient evidence to prove advanced knowledge.