LISTEN: Fruit Juice Exec Pleads Guilty for Selling Tainted Beverages to School Programs

This week, Mary Ann Bliesner, the 83-year-old former president and primary owner of Valley Processing Inc. (VPI) pleaded guilty to charges related to the manufacture and sale of tainted fruit juice products in violation of federal food safety laws. Bliesner operated a now-shuttered fruit juice facility in Sunnyside, Washington.During an FDA inspection in May 2018, VPI employees used caution tape to prevent investigators from entering a room at Bliesner's Grape Road Facility in Washington that held concrete storage vats. The workers told FDA investigators that the facility was unsafe to enter and contained no juice or juice products. Not only did that room store juice, but it was often old unsold grape juice concentrate, sometimes held for years in large concrete vats that were not properly covered or cooled, according to the Department of Justice.