Salmonella Outbreak

      2006 - 2007 salmonella outbreak case has now been re-opened. A Con-Agra Food Inc. unit has agreed to pay a fine and also plea guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge. They're calling this a rare criminal case, but it has made enforcement step-up on how food-safety laws is shaking up its industry. Con-Agra Grocery Products will have to pay $11.2 million to clear up allegations that the company had shipped nasty contaminated peanut butter under the brand Peter Pan. Also, Wal-Mart had shipped the peanut butter under the Great Value label. This salmonella outbreak had sickened more than 700 people. The Justice Department's efforts to hold these food companies and/or their executives accountable for these outbreaks have been successful. Since 2013, the Justice Department has won guilty pleas and convictions in four cases. All of those cases had fallen under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. In recent cases as well, the Justice Department successfully prosecuted defendants for bringing contaminated food into their markets even without proof that the officials acted with criminal intent. These actions have created greater awareness in boardrooms and they have stepped up their efforts to aid food safety. A lot of companies have invested in new technologies to prevent the build-up of bacteria in plants, also to enhance the speed up data collection and analysis. Con-Agra pulled its peanut butter from the shelves in the store after the salmonella outbreak, and on Wednesday's plea agreement they admitted that they'd been aware of some risk of contamination prior to the recall. I think this is awesome, it's about time we're becoming more aware of safety risks and creating food-safety laws. As long as the Justice Department keeps doing what they're doing, they'll keep racking in the money from these companies who think they can just hand out contaminated foods.