Fitting the area's nickname the "Big Tomato," the Sacramento Bee reports a guilty plea Wed before Judge Karlton by an employee of SK Foods, LP to one count of introducing adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead. Sac Bee story here. Although the defendant admitted "participating in the shipment of tomato paste with illegally excessive mold," both her Fresno attorney Robert Wilkinson and prosecutors stressed the paste was not a health hazard.
In a related case, a former Frito-Lay employee pled guilty to an Information and admitted taking $160,000 from a former SK Foods broker to inflate prices on SK Foods' sales to Frito-Lay. The Bee reports that both defendants and one that pled guilty earlier have agreed to cooperate with the government, suggesting more prosecutions likely. AUSAs Ben Wagner and Sean Flynn are prosecuting.