DeCosters plead guilty to egg contamination charges

A former Iowa egg company pleaded guilty Tuesday to felonies that include bribing public officials and misbranding eggs to appear fresher than they were.

Quality Egg LLC, blamed for a 2010 Salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 2,000 people nationwide, pleaded guilty to three charges and agreed to pay a $6.79 million fine as part of a plea deal.

Austin 'Jack” DeCoster, 79, of Turner, Maine, and Peter DeCoster, 51, of Clarion, also pleaded guilty Tuesday to introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The father and son have each agreed to pay a $100,000 fine.

U.S. Magistrate Leonard Strand accepted the pleas during hearings in Sioux City.

The men remain free on bail pending their sentencing hearing, which has not yet been set. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett will decide whether the DeCosters spend any time in jail.

A trial information filed last month in the Northern District of U.S. District Court alleges Jack and Peter DeCoster sold contaminated eggs across state lines for the first half of 2010.

The eggs 'contained a poisonous and deleterious substance, that is, Salmonella Enteritidis, that may have rendered them injurious to health,” the trial information states.

More than 1,900 people across the country became ill in 2010 from Salmonella Enteritidis linked to tainted eggs supplied by Quality Egg, doing business as Wright County Egg, and Hillandale Farms, an Alden operation also managed by the DeCosters. The companies recalled 550 million eggs nationwide.

Iowa is the top egg-producing state in the nation.

The DeCosters got out of the egg business after the outbreak, with Jack DeCoster leasing his Iowa farms to Centrum Valley Farms of Alden.

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