The former president and primary owner of the now-closed fruit juice manufacturer Valley Processing Inc. (VPI) in Sunnyside, Washington, pleaded guilty this week to two misdemeanor charges related to the manufacture and sale of tainted fruit juice products in violation of federal food safety laws.
Mary Ann Bliesner, 83, 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). Bliesner also pleaded guilty to 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. VPI pleaded guilty to conspiracy to introduce adulterated and misbranded fruit juice into interstate commerce, including selling tainted fruit juice to customers. Bliesner and VPI agreed to pay a criminal forfeiture amount of $742,139 as proceeds of their criminal conduct.
In pleading guilty, VPI admitted that it conspired to distribute tainted and potentially unsafe apple and grape juice to customers in the United States and abroad between October 2012 and June 2019. VPI admitted that it misrepresented to customers the age and quality of VPI’s products. VPI admitted that it blended grape juice concentrate, which was stored outside the VPI facility for years and 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. VPI sold at least some of this contaminated product to customers who provided grape juice for the National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-cost lunches to children.
Bliesner and VPI admitted that they failed to register a food facility, known as the “Grape Road Facility,” with the FDA. Bliesner and VPI used the Grape Road Facility to store earlier seasons’ unsold grape juice concentrate, sometimes for years, in large concrete vats that were not properly covered or cooled. Bliesner and VPI admitted that product stored at the Grape Road Facility was adulterated, unsafe and unfit for consumption. According to VPI’s plea agreement, during a May 2018 FDA inspection, employees 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. According to the VPI plea agreement, FDA investigators later learned about the vats and, after entering the room, observed grape juice concentrate that testing later confirmed was 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.
In November 2020, the United States filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking to enjoin Bliesner and VPI from producing, storing or selling juice or juice products. In January 2021, Bliesner and VPI agreed to a consent injunction barring Bliesner and VPI from processing, manufacturing, preparing, packing, holding or distributing any type of food without first notifying and receiving approval from the FDA. VPI subsequently closed. Bliesner and the company no longer manufacture or sell juice products. In September 2022, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Bliesner and VPI with 12 counts of fraud and food safety crimes.
“Protecting the safety of American’s food supply is essential,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will take action whenever appropriate to ensure the individuals and companies that produce our food maintain safe facilities and tell the truth to their customers and the FDA.”
“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. “School children deserve safe and nutritious food. Nothing is more important that the health and safety of our children. I commend the excellent work by investigators with the Food and Drug Administration and prosecutors in my office who uncovered and stopped this conduct and are protecting our public health.”
“Companies that mislead consumers and the FDA by selling adulterated products manufactured and stored under insanitary conditions place the public health at risk,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Iwanicki of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Los Angeles Field Office. “In this case, the company’s actions put at risk the health of consumers, including schoolchildren, who consumed the fruit juice. FDA will continue to pursue and hold accountable those who attempt to subvert our regulatory processes at the expense of consumer safety.”
Bliesner and VPI will face a sentencing hearing on March 26, 2025. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations investigated the case.
Trial Attorney James Hennelly and Senior Trial Attorney David Gunn of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dan Fruchter and Devin Curda for the Eastern District of Washington are prosecuting the case.
U.S. Attorney Waldref released a video statement that can be found here.
For more information about the enforcement efforts of the Consumer Protection Branch, visit their website at www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.