Summary: After the 2007 peanut butter recall that sickened at least 625 people, a unit of ConAgra Foods will face criminal charges and pay the largest criminal fine ever.
A 2007 salmonella outbreak in peanut butter produced by ConAgra Foods at a plant in Georgia sickened hundreds of people. The resolution has come down to the company pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge with the largest-ever fine for a criminal charge.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were able to trace the outbreak to the peanut butter. Stuart Delery was the associate attorney general for the Justice Department that oversaw the plea deal with ConAgra.
The Justice Department is dedicated to using whatever resources required ensuring that food professors, manufacturers and handlers are keeping their obligations to protect public safety. ConAgra has fixed the problems that led to the contamination in the Georgia plant. Their Peter Pan peanut butter has had no incidents for over seven years.
The Department remains busy policing a growing trend of food safety violators this year, including the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America and employees at another company for selling tainted eggs. Delery is determined to guarantee that the foods the public eats and the medicine the public takes are safe.
Photo: conagrafoods.com