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This week Mary Anne Bleisner, the 83 year old
former president and primary owner of Valley
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Processing Inc, pleaded guilty to charges
related to the manufacture and sale of tainted
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fruit juice products in violation of federal
food safety laws.
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Bleisner.
Operated a now shuttered fruit juice facility
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in Sunnyside, Washington during an FDA
inspection in May 2018,
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VPI employees used caution tape to prevent
investigators from entering a room at
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Bleisner’s Grape Road facility in Washington.
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It held concrete storage vats.
The workers told FDA investigators that the
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facility was unsafe to enter and contained no
juice or juice products.
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Not only did that room store juice, but it was
often old unsold grape juice concentrate.
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Sometimes held for years in large concrete vats
that were not properly covered or cooled.
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Well, investigators learned about the vats, and
when they entered the room,
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they found grape juice concentrate that testing
later confirmed to be contaminated with bird
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and rodent feces, fur, insects, decaying
remains of animals.
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Old yeast, and other contaminants.
FDA inspectors even saw a live rat
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walking across the hardened crust that had
formed on top of the grape juice concentrate.
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About 2.5 years later, the government filed a
complaint to stop VPI from making any juice
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products.
In January 2021, Bleisner agreed to an
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injunction in VPI.
Shut its doors.
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In September 2022, a federal grand jury
indicted Bleisner and VPI on 12 counts of fraud
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and food safety crimes.
Bleisner pleaded guilty to multiple crimes and
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admitted to conspiring to distribute tainted
and potentially unsafe apple and grape juice to
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customers in the US and abroad from October
2012 to June 2019,
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nearly.
7 years VPI admitted that it blended grape
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juice concentrate that was stored outside for
years and exposed to the elements with newer
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grape juice concentrate and sold the resulting
blended product to unsuspecting customers as if
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it were new.
VPI even sold some of this contaminated product
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to customers who provided grape juice for the
national school lunch program,
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which provides free or reduced.
Cost lunches to kids.
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Bleisner and VPI agreed to pay $742,139 as a
criminal
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forfeiture.
Bleisner and VPI will face a sentencing hearing
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on March 26, 2025.
She was originally looking at 20 years,
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but a federal judge will determine any sentence
after considering the US sentencing guidelines
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and other statutory factors.
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I’m David Manti.
This is manufacturing now.
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And Merry Christmas.