A five-week investigation conducted by Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black has cleared Vidalia, GA, onion grower Stanley Farms of allegations that it misrepresented other onions as the state’s trademarked sweet onion. But the company will face a one-year probationary period for improperly storing non-Vidalia onions with Vidalias.

Under Georgia law, other onions must be segregated from Vidalias if they are handled at a licensed Vidalia processing facility. A Georgia agriculture inspector must affix a seal to those onions to avoid comingling, and only a state inspector can remove that seal.

Stanley’s organic yellow onions were not properly sealed, Black said.

The latter is a lesser offense than the initial accusation of misrepresenting other onions as Vidalias, a felony charge that carries penalties of $1,000-$5,000 and/or not less than one nor more than three years imprisonment.

In a June 12 statement, Stanley Farms General Manager Vince Stanley said the company will work more closely with the department of agriculture to avoid future incidents.

The statement said in part, “The department has stated (Stanley Farms) did not infringe upon or degrade the Vidalia mark. As you will see in the consent order, there has been no willful misconduct by anyone and we have no prior history of regulatory concerns.”

Black’s investigation stretched across five weeks, and the commissioner said there is no evidence non-Vidalias were ever on Vidalia packinglines at the Stanley facility.

Black placed a hold on the improperly stored yellow onions until all inventory could be traced and accounted for, requiring Stanley Farms to relocate 285 bins to another facility where they remained under seal during the investigation.

Stanley Farms signed a consent agreement with the ag department for a one-year probationary period. Any other offense during that period could lead to the loss of its Vidalia onion license.

Black and officials from the Federal-State Inspection Service met May 7 with Vidalia onion growers to hear allegations from growers that Stanley Farms may have processed as many as 400 truckloads of conventional yellow Florida onions at the same facility where it processes Vidalias without separating the two as required by law, an infraction that carries a potential fine of $5,000 per incident up to $20,000.  Growers at the meeting also raised allegations that Stanley may have packed those yellow onions as Vidalias, but Black’s investigation — which included a third-party audit by an Atlanta accounting firm — found those claims baseless.