GRIDLEY, Ill. (WMBD) — Food company Kerry Inc. was fined $19.2 million for its Gridley plant’s role in a salmonella outbreak in 2018.
The Wisconsin-based company pleaded guilty in February to one misdemeanor of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce.
The company’s Gridley plant manufactured Honey Smacks cereal in unsanitary conditions and was connected to dozens of more than 130 cases of salmonellosis at the plant beginning in March 2018, court documents show.
Routine environmental tests found 81 samples of salmonella at the plant between June 2016 and June 2018.
The company also forfeited $8.4 million in adulterated food.
The case was sealed on March 17 to protect the identities of individuals involved in the discovery process.