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A Fruit juice company and its owner have been fined $742,139 for tainted National School Lunch Program products and other food safety breaches.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated the case, which highlighted that the produce and concentrate handled by the company were kept in filthy and unsanitary conditions.

Fruit juice Valley Processing Inc. (VPI), based in Sunnyside, Washington, was the focus of the FDA case and the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA) breach.

National School Lunch Program fruit juice producer fined

“Bliesner and her company, Valley Processing, produced juice in filthy and unsafe conditions, mis-labeled that product, and then sold it to the National School Lunch Program that serves low-income school children,” said U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref for the Eastern District of Washington.

The report said Mary Ann Bliesner, the company’s eighty-three-year-old owner, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts under the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA), including failing to register a food facility with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

She was also held accountable for a misdemeanor FDCA violation in connection with failing to “prevent and correct VPI’s introduction of adulterated grape juice concentrate into interstate commerce, including grape juice concentrate that was delivered to a customer for use in the National School Lunch Program.”

As a result, the company to conspiracy to “introduce adulterated and misbranded fruit juice into interstate commerce,” including the sale of non-regulated or checked produce like fruit juice to customers.

The Justice Department report presented a key point that highlighted VPI’s negligence in preparing the fruit juice. It stated that the company stored blended grape juice concentrate outside its facility for years.

This product, which would be given to school children as part of the National School Lunch Program, was “exposed to the elements, with newer grape juice concentrate, and sold the resulting blended grape juice product to unsuspecting customers as if it were new product.”

The company’s owner and staff did not register a facility under “Grape Road”. As part of an FDA investigation in May 2018, staff gave false information about the facility. VIP staff had “placed caution tape over the entrance to the room at the Grape Road Facility with the concrete storage vats. VPI employees then told FDA investigators that the facility was unsafe to enter and that it contained no juice or juice products.”

It was found that these vats contained juice “contaminated with bird and rodent feces, fur, insects, decaying remains of animals, mold, yeast and other contaminants. FDA inspectors also observed and photographed a live rat walking across the hardened crust that had formed on top of the grape juice concentrate.”

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