ALBANY, Ga. — A federal judge has approved the largest-ever criminal fine for a food-borne illness in the United States, resolving a decade-long criminal case against ConAgra for shipping Peter Pan peanut butter tainted with salmonella.
The settlement calls for ConAgra to pay $11.2 million, including an $8 million fine that the Justice Department calls unprecedented. It also includes $3.2 million in cash forfeitures to the U.S. government.
Federal prosecutor Graham Thorpe said ConAgra’s actions “made a lot of people sick,” and that with this criminal case, “the industry has taken notice.”
The guilty plea to a single misdemeanor charge of shipping adulterated food closes the case on a salmonella outbreak blamed for sickening at least 625 people in 47 states.
