The subsidiary behind a major food recall in 2007 has been formally sentenced in a case in which it pleaded guilty to selling peanut butter contaminated with salmonella.
ConAgra Grocery Products—which sells Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter brands—was sentenced to an $8 million fine and forced to forfeit more than $3 million in assets, Consumerist reported. That record-breaking sentence was finalized on Tuesday as the company, which pleaded guilty last year, was formally sentenced.
ConAgra (CAG) wasn’t the lone culprit in the peanut butter scandal. The Food and Drug Administration later said it knew the facility was potentially contaminated with salmonella as early as 2005, but didn’t have the funds to send more inspectors to investigate the problem. The agency instead chose not to act, and salmonella reached customers several years later.
The 2007 peanut butter recall wasn’t the only incident in recent history. In another case, which spanned from 2008 to 2009, executives from the Peanut Corporation of America were sent to prison for knowingly sending contaminated peanut butter to customers. The case caused more than 700 cases of salmonellosis and nine confirmed deaths.
