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The confectionery giant Cadbury was fined £1 million ($2.5 million) plus £152,000 in costs yesterday for causing the salmonella scare in Britain last year that left at least 42 people ill.
A judge at Birmingham Crown Court said that Cadbury had been guilty of "a serious case of negligence" for knowingly selling infected chocolate that should have been scrapped.
Cadbury was forced to withdraw one million bars on June 23 last year when the Food Standards Authority discovered, largely by chance, that an outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella was linked to the firm's chocolate.
Cadbury had failed to notify the authorities of the contamination of its Marlbrook plant in Herfordshire, caused by a leaking water pipe.
After a year-long investigation, Cadbury pleaded guilty to nine food safety offences earlier this year.
Recorder James Guthrie, QC, fined Cadbury £500,000 for putting unsafe chocolate on sale and £100,000 on each of two other charges brought by Birmingham City Council.
He also fined the firm £50,000 for each of six offences relating to food safety breaches at Marlbrook, which made the chocolate crumb for Dairy Milk and other products.
Recorder Guthrie said he did not believe that Cadbury made a conscious decision to cut costs when in 2003 it replaced its "zero tolerance" policy with one allowing a "tolerable level" of salmonella.
Before that, it had destroyed all infected bars.
The judge said: "I regard this as a serious case of negligence. It therefore needs to be marked as such to emphasise the responsibility and care which the law requires of a company in Cadbury's position."
Three of the victims had to be admitted to hospital, he added.
Among those poisoned were a 61-year-old woman who lost 4.5kg in weight, a woman who was so ill she could not attend her sister-in-law's funeral, and a man who was so ill he passed out.
The Health Protection Agency estimated that there were three to five times more victims than the 42 reported by doctors.
After sentencing, Cadbury offered its "sincere regrets" to the people taken ill. A spokesman said: "We have apologised for this and do so again today."
- INDEPENDENT
