A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry September 1997
Contents: Training and national food hygiene legislation | ANZFA draft standard on food additives | Unusual chemical poisoning incident | Chlorfluazuron (CFZ) residues in meat | Hepatitis A transmission by foods | Garibaldi charges dropped | Cheese from unpasteurised milk | Date marking of processed foods for export | Fungi and food spoilage
Garibaldi charges dropped
Manslaughter charges against two directors of Garibaldi Smallgoods were dropped by the South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions in July of this year and the men pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
The company was at the centre of the E. coli O111 food poisoning incident in 1995 which claimed the life of a four-year old girl and which changed almost overnight the attitude to food safety and hygiene in Australia.
The two directors pleaded guilty to the charge of creating risk of harm and were fined $10,000 each. The maximum penalty which could have been handed down was five years' jail or a $30,000 fine.
The charge did not relate directly to Garibaldi's production of mettwurst which caused the death of the four-year old and serious illness to many other children. The charge resulted from Garibaldi's week long delay in notifying authorities that the bacteria known to be causing the mettwurst-related illness was also present in other products.
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