Death by Peanuts Case

The Peanut Corporation of America was one of the many food companies that slipped through the cracks when it came to making sure they followed the food and safety regulations created by the U.S. FDA. Because of their failure to comply with the rules, 8 people died and as many as 20,000 may have gotten sick from their contaminated products. When PCA’s top managers were making the decision to send out the contaminated products, they were not thinking about the potential harm they could inflict because they were only thinking about themselves and their company. The factors that led top management to send out bad products were: budget limitations, time constraints, and overall poor management skills.

In the case, evidence that proves that plant owner Stewart Parnell knew about the contaminated product but still sent it out because of his concern for time and money. Parnell is obviously only worried about the company’s bottom line and would rather send out harmful products than waste time and money fixing their mistakes. Because he is so concerned with getting products out the door as quickly and cheaply as possible, he made the decision to send out contaminated products.

The plant manager Sammy Lightsey was also aware of the issue, but still sent out the products. Together, him and Parnell would ignore the initial salmonella tests and get additional ones that would give them time to ship the contaminated product before getting the second results. They would also only clean the plant before scheduled inspections, put updated labels on outdated products, and would leave the quality management position open for long periods of time. These atrocious management decisions attest to the overall management skills of Parnell and Lightsey. Their decision to send out contaminated peanut products is by far the worst management decision they made.

Although most of the blame can be put on the top managers, there is also a portion that can be put on the employees. They...