California fruit giant in chaos as CEO steps down following highly toxic and deception claims

California berry giant Driscoll’s is shaking up its leadership as CEO Soren Bjorn steps down from the top job amid a growing legal storm over allegations that its strawberries contain toxic “forever chemicals.”Brie Reiter Smith, the company’s board vice chair and great-granddaughter of Driscoll’s co-founder, will take over effective immediately, the Watsonville-based company announced Tuesday.“While I may not have followed the traditional path to this role, no one believes in our company’s mission more than me,” Smith said.“The team Soren has assembled is the best we’ve had, which is a real testament to his leadership and vision.”Bjorn, who joined Driscoll’s in 2006 and became CEO in 2023, will remain with the company during the transition and help with key strategic priorities.“We have had a lot of fun and been through plenty of challenges together,” Driscoll’s Executive Chair Miles Reiter said of the outgoing CEO.

The leadership change comes as Driscoll’s faces a consumer fraud class-action lawsuit accusing the berry giant of deceptive marketing over alleged pesticide and PFAS contamination in its strawberries.The lawsuit, filed by six consumers from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois, claims laboratory testing of two boxes of Driscoll’s strawberries found residues from 12 pesticides at levels allegedly prohibited in the European Union and several other countries.Eight of the chemicals identified in the testing were described in the report as PFAS, a class of highly persistent chemicals commonly dubbed “forever chemicals.”The allegations build on a separate whistleblower complaint filed last month by David Harada, Driscoll’s former manager of food safety and regulatory compliance for the US and Canada.Harada claims he was wrongfully fired after raising concerns that some growers were allegedly violating state, federal and international pesticide limits.California's top news, sports and entertainment d...