Dive Brief:
- A U.S. District Court judge will decide whether or not to approve ConAgra’s pending plea deal settlement for a decade-old multi-state peanut butter outbreak in a hearing Tuesday, Food Safety Magazine reported.
- The settlement would be a total of $11.2 million, including an unprecedented $8 million fine and a $3.2 million forfeiture the company must pay to the federal government.
- ConAgra maintains that the company, its executives and employees had no knowledge of the contamination prior to shipping. ConAgra subsidiary ConAgra Grocery Products Company will plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge of shipping adulterated food, but the courts haven't implicated any individual ConAgra executives — yet.
Dive Insight:
The amount of ConAgra's fine has been at the heart of scrutiny in this case, as it has been among the highest a food or beverage company has been ordered to pay in a food safety case like this. Higher fines in these types of cases may become the new normal depending on the judge's decision.
This possibility is especially relevant in light of Michael Foods' $75 million settlement payment that owner Post Holdings agreed to pay to consumers who filed antitrust claims over the sale of shell eggs in an eight-year-old class action lawsuit.
While most of the heavy-hitting lawsuits in food safety have targeted specific executives, ConAgra's case shows that prosecutors don't necessarily have to approve malicious intent for a company to see backlash. With FSMA regulations continuing to take shape and be implemented, companies may be protecting themselves outright from this type of lawsuit by identifying and correcting any and all instances of food safety risk.