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Feds: Tomato Broker Took Payoffs to Buy Tainted Food

by nanute | February 26, 2010 at 05:10 am

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You would expect the food you eat to be safe for consumption; right? Apparently not,. Federal prosecutors are investigating, and have arrested the owner of bankrupt SK Foods, Frederick Scott Salyer and charged him with racketeering, obstruction of justice and fraud.

Allegations of bribery, and charging food suppliers such as Kraft Foods, excessive prices for tomato products seem like just another case of the cost of doing business. If the allegations that records were falsified are confirmed, and tomatoes with high levels of mold were sold to end users,in violation of food safety standards, consumers may start questioning the overall safety of the food supply chain.

Robert Watson, a top ingredient buyer for Kraft Foods, needed $20,000 to pay his taxes. So he called a broker for a California tomato processor that for years had been paying him bribes to get its products into Kraft’s plants.

[...] Over the last 14 months, Mr. Watson and three other purchasing managers, at Frito-Lay, Safeway and B&G Foods, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Five people connected to one of the nation’s largest tomato processors, SK Foods, have also admitted taking part in the scheme.

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Rory Cripps

at 05:45 on February 26th, 2010

Federal prosecutors are investigating, and have arrested the owner of bankrupt SK Foods, Frederick Scott Salyer and charged him with racketeering, obstruction of justice and fraud.

Someone in the food business racketeering? Imagine that! MINCHIA!

nanute

at 05:48 on February 26th, 2010

It's shocking, isn't it? Now, if we'd just let business do it's thing without any regulatory oversight, it would all be just fine. lol.

Rory Cripps

at 05:53 on February 26th, 2010

Safeway was one of Costellanos deals until they whacked him. Americans have been eating it on a stick for years and don't even know it. BTW: How's that global warming working out for you? I hear that it's unseasonably warm up there. HA! But I really do miss it! No lie. Sullivan County under state of emergency.