Case 34.1 Food Regulation

United States v. Gel Spice Co., Inc

Gel Spice Company and its president Barry Engel are guilty of the 10 accounts under criminal prosecution of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act enacted by the FDA. The company was accused of various foods handling accounts that saw the shipped spice for resale in New York warehouse being exposed to contamination of the rodent filth (Cheeseman, 2014). The food was adulterated and the food handling was in sanitary conditions that become contaminated with filth in all counts of the rodent excreta pellets, rodent hair, rodent urine, and rodent gnawing. The company was is guilty as it did not meet the standards of food sanitation. It is at most good faith to protect the interest of the public through responsible management which the FDA proved that the consumers’ interests were not upheld (Cheeseman, 2014).

Despite numerous investigations by the government the situation was found to be the same in the Gel Spice warehouse. However, Gel Spice had argued that the information was the three inspections carried out by the government were in bad faith. This is however not true because Gel Spice had a history of non-compliance and the subsequent findings proved the evidence trail was in good faith. It is true to say that the food preparation and packaging was held in insanitary conditions and there was a reasonable possibility of it to be contaminated by the rodent filth (Cheeseman, 2014).  The president Barry Engel of Gel Spice Company should be held personally responsible for his brother Andre Engel the Vice President for all the accounts. This is because they are supposed to exercise the responsibility of conducting the business the right way as they were in a position of power and they had the authority to prevent, detect and correct the violation of the Act. The vice president also failed to prove that he was powerless to prevent the rodent infestation hence a strong ground for holding him responsible (Cheeseman, 2014). This is supported by the fact that Barry Engel admitted that he was solely responsible for the plant sanitation and that he controlled hiring and the firing of the outside exterminators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

 

Cheeseman, H. R. (2014). Contemporary business law and online Commerce Law.Prentice Hall ISBN: 978-0-133-57816-4