Stewart Parnell once boasted processing the "finest" peanut products, but on Monday, the former company executive was effectively sentenced to life behind bars for knowingly shipping out deadly food.

A federal judge handed Parnell a 28-year prison sentence, the toughest penalty ever for a corporate executive in a food poisoning outbreak. Parnell is 61 and unless he wins an appeal, he will have to serve out most of his term.

His brother and food broker Michael Parnell received a 20-year sentence, and the plant's quality assurance manager, Mary Wilkerson, was given five years.

A jury in south Georgia convicted Stewart Parnell a year ago on 72 counts of fraud, conspiracy and the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce. The former CEO of the now-defunct Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) was sentenced Monday at the same federal court in Albany, not far from the city of Blakely where his peanut processing plant once profited.

Parnell's trial was groundbreaking: Never before had a corporate executive been convicted of federal felony charges related to food poisoning. Parnell was facing up to 803 years in prison, and even though his sentence fell far short of the maximum, food safety advocates hailed it as a big step forward.

"Honestly, I think the fact that he was prosecuted at all is a victory for consumers," said Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who represented several of the victims in the PCA outbreak.

"Although his sentence is less than the maximum, it is the longest sentence ever in a food poisoning case," Marler said. "This sentence is going to send a stiff, cold wind through board rooms across the U.S."

For Jeff Almer, Parnell's sentencing brought relief. He had been seeking justice for his mother, Shirley Mae Almer, who died in late 2008 after eating salmonella-tainted peanut butter. Still, the day was filled with mixed emotions.

"I am satisfied there were convictions and now jail terms," he said. "But less so in that all this could have been avoided."