ConAgra to pay $11.2M to settle salmonella case

Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga.

ConAgra Foods agreed Wednesday to pay $11.2 million, a sum that includes the highest criminal fine ever in a U.S. food-safety case, to settle a federal charge that the company shipped Peter Pan peanut butter tainted with salmonella from a plant in Georgia, sickening more than 600 people and triggering a massive recall eight years ago.

Federal prosecutors filed a single misdemeanor charge of shipping adulterated food against the Omaha, Neb.- based company along with a plea deal Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Georgia. No company executives were charged.

The company agreed to pay $8 million in criminal fines, which the Justice Department called the highest criminal fine ever in a food investigation, plus an additional $3.2 million in forfeitures to the federal government.

It’s the latest in a series of recent prosecutions of manufacturers linked to food poisoning that has companies “taking notice in a big way,” said Bill Marler, an attorney who has represented victims of food-borne illnesses for two decades, including more than 100 sickened in the Peter Pan outbreak.

In 2007, a salmonella outbreak blamed for sickening at least 625 people in 47 states was traced to the Sylvester, Ga., plant where ConAgra made Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter. As a result, the company recalled all of its peanut butter that had been manufactured since 2004.

The fine may do little to ConAgra’s bottom line. The company earned more than $303 million in fiscal 2014, and those results were weighed down by restructuring charges. In the latest quarter, ConAgra reported revenue of $3.88 billion.