US wraps up investigation of recall of peanut butter

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb.

ConAgra Foods is likely to face a criminal charge now that the U.S. government has completed its investigation of the company’s 2007 peanut-butter recall.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Georgia, Pam Lightsey, said Tuesday that prosecutors plan to reveal details of the investigation today.

ConAgra spokeswoman Teresa Paulsen declined to comment Tuesday, but the company previously has said it was negotiating an end to the investigation that likely would include a misdemeanor charge of shipping tainted products.

If the Omaha, Neb., food-maker is charged criminally, the case would extend a recent string of high-profile food-safety prosecutions. ConAgra recalled all its peanut butter in 2007 after its Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter was linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 625 people in 47 states. The peanut butter was produced at ConAgra’s Sylvester, Ga., plant.