ConAgra Unit to Plead Guilty in Peter Pan Peanut Butter Poisoning that Sickened Over 700

ConAgra Grocery Products, a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Inc., will plead guilty and pay $11.2 million in connection with the shipment of contaminated Peter Pan peanut butter linked to a 2006 through 2007 nationwide outbreak of salmonellosis, or salmonella poisoning that sickened more than 700 consumers nationwide.

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ConAgra Grocery Products LLC is based in Omaha, Nebraska, with a manufacturing facility in Sylvester, Georgia.

ConAgra was represented by Douglas Fellman and Jonathan Diesenhaus of Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. and by Joe Whitley of Baker Donelson in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Justice Department filed a criminal information against ConAgra Grocery Products alleging a misdemeanor violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

The company signed a plea agreement admitting that it introduced Peter Pan and private label peanut butter contaminated with salmonella into interstate commerce during the 2006 through 2007 outbreak.

The plea agreement provides that ConAgra Grocery Products will pay a criminal fine of $8 million and forfeit assets of $3.2 million.

The criminal fine is the largest ever paid in a food safety case.

“As parents, we can make sure that our kids look both ways before they cross the street and wear a helmet when they ride their bikes,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery.  “But we have to rely on the companies that make their food to make sure it is safe.  That’s why the Department of Justice is dedicated to using all the tools we have to ensure the processors and handlers of our food live up to their legal obligations to keep the public’s safety in mind.”

In February 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that an ongoing outbreak of salmonellosis cases in the United States could be traced to Peter Pan and private label peanut butter produced and shipped from the company’s Sylvester peanut butter plant.

The company voluntarily terminated production at the plant on Feb. 14, 2007, and recalled all peanut butter manufactured there since January 2004.  The CDC eventually identified more than 700 cases of salmonellosis linked to the outbreak with illness onset dates beginning in August 2006.

The CDC estimated that thousands of additional related cases went unreported.  The CDC did not identify any deaths related to the outbreak.

The criminal information, filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, alleges that on or about December 7, 2006, the company shipped from Georgia to Texas peanut butter that was adulterated, in that it contained salmonella and had been prepared under conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with salmonella.

The company admitted in the plea agreement that samples obtained after the recall showed that peanut butter made at the Sylvester plant on nine different dates between August 4, 2006, and January 29, 2007, was contaminated with salmonella.

Environmental testing conducted after the recall identified the same strain of salmonella in at least nine locations throughout the Sylvester plant.

“We, as consumers, take for granted that the food we feed our families is safe,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Moore.  “We count on the companies who prepare and package the things we eat to be just as concerned with the product we put in our mouths as they are with the profit they put in their pockets.  The proposed criminal fine and sentence in this case should sound the alarm to food companies across the country – we are watching, and we are expecting you to hold yourselves to a standard reflective of the trust that your consumers have placed in you.  No more excuses.  A lot of people got very sick because of the conduct in this case and we are committed to doing all we can to make sure that does not happen again.”

As part of the plea agreement, the company admitted that it had previously been aware of some risk of salmonella contamination in peanut butter.

On two dates in October 2004, routine testing at the Sylvester plant revealed what later was confirmed to be salmonella in samples of finished peanut butter.

Company employees attempting to locate the cause of the contamination identified several potential contributing factors, including an old peanut roaster that was not uniformly heating raw peanuts, a storm-damaged sugar silo, and a leaky roof that allowed moisture into the plant and airflow that could allow potential contaminants to move around the plant.

As stated in the plea agreement, while efforts to address some of these issues had occurred or were underway, the company did not fully correct these conditions until after the 2006 through 2007 outbreak.

In public statements after the 2007 recall, company officials hypothesized that moisture entered the production process and enabled the growth of salmonella present in the raw peanuts or peanut dust.

The company also admitted in the plea agreement that between October 2004 and February 2007, employees charged with analyzing finished product tests at the Sylvester plant failed to detect salmonella in the peanut butter, and that the company was unaware some of the employees did not know how to properly interpret the results of the tests.

 

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