Sticking public with impure products puts syrup makers in prison

FDA Consumer, April, 1997 by Paula Kurtzweil

Federal and state regulators hope that prison sentences stemming from an FDA criminal investigation have finally put a plug in a lucrative but fraudulent decades-old Mississippi honey- and syrup-making business.

The prison sentences--as much as two and a half years for one man--are the stiffest ever imposed on a company or individual for violations based solely on the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

For almost a quarter of a century, the family-run business in rural DeKalb, Miss., touted its products as the real thing and sold them in old-fashioned copper-colored tins at farmers' markets and produce stands around the country. The marketing technique may have charmed consumers with its homeyness, but, as regulators repeatedly found, these products were nothing more than a homespun hoax.

Labeled as pure honey and pure maple, cane and sorghum syrups, the products were in fact made with low-cost sweeteners--mainly corn syrups.

Despite countless federal and state warnings, injunctions, embargoes, and other attempts to stop the illegal practice, it continued. But the most recent court action--prison sentences and a lifetime ban on syrup and honey making for two of the most flagrant violators--may finally help convince the family to reform their business practices.

Serving time--19 months and 30 months respectively--are brothers J.H. Pilgrim, 52, who did business under his own name, and Paul Pilgrim, 64, proprietor of Paul Pilgrim Syrup Co. They were sentenced in October after pleading guilty to selling adulterated honey and syrup. In addition to prison and the manufacturing ban, Chief Judge William Barbour of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi fined the men $20,000 each and sentenced them to one-year supervised probation.

"For 20-plus years, this family has arrogantly ignored the agency's authority and adamantly refused to comply with the law of the land," said James Blakely, an investigator with FDA's Jackson (Miss.) resident post who has been involved with investigations of the Pilgrim family since 1978. "They would just snub their noses at the government."

"We had to make an example of these guys," he said, referring to J.H. and Paul Pilgrim.

Although made under crude conditions--in plywood buildings, where boat paddles were used for stirring and tube socks for straining--the products never posed a significant health hazard. "This was an economic problem," Blakely said.

The outcome of the first prosecution of a Pilgrim family member, initiated by FDA in the late 1980s, had little effect on the rest of the family's business activities. In that case, family patriarch Nathan H. Pilgrim pleaded guilty in April 1990 to four felony counts of misbranding honey and syrup. He was fined $130,000 and served three years' probation. To the best of FDA's knowledge, he no longer is in the honey and syrup business.

Following the sentencing, however, FDA continued to receive complaints from industry and consumers about Pilgrim products. Industry complained that the products were priced so low that legitimate companies could not compete, and some were forced out of business. FDA estimated that the Pilgrims' illegal activities enabled them to undercut costs of legitimate honey and syrup makers by as much as 85 percent.

Consumers complained about the products' taste. Blakely recalled one call he received from a consumer who made and sold maple cookies. She used a Pilgrim "pure" maple syrup in a batch of cookies, but the final product didn't taste anything like her usual cookies. "She like had a duck," Blakely said. "She was extremely upset that her recipe and possibly her reputation were being compromised by this substituted product."

Regulatory actions continued. For example:

* The state of North Carolina, in cooperation with FDA, embargoed in 1993 two lots of honey and one lot of molasses made by H.W. Pilgrim, another family member. The products contained corn syrup, a sugar not found in pure honey or molasses. As allowed under North Carolina law, Pilgrim reclaimed his embargoed products and said he would bring them into compliance by relabeling them.

* The state of Florida notified family members in 1994 that their products were illegal, and any further attempt to sell, distribute and make adulterated food in Florida would result in a fine of up to $3,000. Laboratory analyses indicated that Pilgrim products sold in state did not contain pure substances as indicated on the label.

* At the request of FDA's Seattle district office, U.S. marshals seized $15,000 worth of Pilgrim syrup targeted for export to Austria. The Austrian government had rejected the shipment because laboratory analysis of samples indicated the entire load was adulterated and misbranded with corn syrup. Exporter Frank Schenk von Stauffenburg of Trans World Trade in Bothell, Wash., complained to FDA.

That same month, FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations and New Orleans district office began a criminal investigation of J.H. and Paul Pilgrim because previously gathered evidence indicated their businesses were the family's most active.