ConAgra Pays $11 Million Over Contaminated Peanut Butter

ConAgra Foods agreed Wednesday to pay $11.2 million to settle a federal charge that the company shipped Peter Pan peanut butter contaminated with salmonella that sickened more than 600 people eight years ago, NBC News reported. The food giant agreed to pay $8 million in criminal fines — which the Justice Department called the highest criminal fine ever in a food investigation — plus another $3.2 million in forfeitures to the federal government. The settlement is the latest in a string of high-profile prosecutions against manufacturers, which has companies "taking notice in a big way," said attorney Bill Marler, who for two decades has represented foodborne illness victims, including 100 of the people sickened in the Peter Pan salmonella outbreak.