ConAgra's tainted Peter Pan peanut butter drew a record $11.2M food-safety fine

Between August 2006 and early 2007, more than 700 people in the U.S. fell ill with salmonellosis linked to Peter Pan and private-label peanut butter made at ConAgra's Sylvester, Georgia plant. CDC found no deaths but estimated thousands more cases went unreported.

On February 14, 2007, ConAgra stopped production at the plant and recalled all peanut butter made there since January 2004. The company later said a leaky roof and faulty sprinkler had let salmonella grow in the plant. In 2015 it agreed to plead guilty to shipping contaminated peanut butter.

In December 2016 a federal judge imposed the agreed sentence: an $8 million criminal fine plus $3.2 million in asset forfeiture, which the Justice Department called the largest fine ever paid in a food-safety case.

$8 million criminal fine plus $3.2 million forfeiture — the largest food-safety fine of its time — after more than 700 illnesses.

Moisture from a leaky roof and faulty sprinkler created conditions where salmonella could grow in the plant.

Contaminated Peter Pan and private-label jars shipped nationwide for months before the recall.

The recall covered every jar made since January 2004, so the brand and the plant were lost together.

A contaminated production line can poison a national brand: ConAgra shut the Sylvester plant and recalled every jar made there since 2004, and the fine only covered part of the damage.

The Sylvester plant ceased peanut butter production and ConAgra stopped selling Peter Pan from that facility. The sentence stood as the largest food-safety fine on record for years and is still cited in food-safety enforcement, while the outbreak became a standard example of how sanitation failures become criminal cases.