The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri has announced that a Nevada company and its owners entered guilty pleas in federal court “to distributing a tainted ingredient used to make pet food, which resulted in a nationwide recall of pet food and the death and serious illness of countless pets across the United States in 2007.”

Sally Qing Miller, her husband Stephen Miller and their company Chemnutra, Inc. reportedly pleaded guilty to some of the charges in a February 2008 indictment, admitting that “melamine was substituted wholly or in part for the protein requirement of the wheat gluten” they imported from China and distributed in the United States and Canada and that “the labeling of wheat gluten was false and misleading.” The Millers are apparently each subject to a sentence of up to two years in prison without parole, fines of up to $200,000 and an order of restitution. Sentencing will occur at a later date. See U.S. Attorney Press Release, June 16, 2009.

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For decades, manufacturers, distributors and retailers at every link in the food chain have come to Shook, Hardy & Bacon to partner with a legal team that understands the issues they face in today's evolving food production industry. Shook attorneys work with some of the world's largest food, beverage and agribusiness companies to establish preventative measures, conduct internal audits, develop public relations strategies, and advance tort reform initiatives.

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