Cadbury fined $2M for salmonella Contamination

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases*

July 16, 2007 -- Updated 1556 GMT (2356 HKT)
*
Cadbury fined $2M for salmonella Contamination *

* Story Highlights
* Cadbury fined $2 million for selling chocolate contaminated with
salmonella
* In June 2006, Cadbury admitted to the salmonella problem at a UK plant
* More than 1 million chocolate bars were recalled in the UK and Ireland
* The health scare cost the company $61 million

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A UK court has fined Cadbury Schweppes, the
world's largest confectionery group, £1 million ($2 million) for selling
unsafe chocolate in Britain and Ireland during 2006 in a salmonella
health scare.

Cadbury has been fined more than $2 million for selling chocolate that
was contaminated with salmonella.

Cadbury, which makes Dairy Milk chocolate, had pleaded guilty after a
number of people were left ill and some victims spent a number of days
in hospital.

Cadbury accepted the outcome and admitted the factory process it had
followed in Britain was unacceptable. It added it had spend £20 million
to prevent this happening again.

"We have apologized for this and do so again today. In particular we
offer our sincere regrets and apologies to anyone who was made ill as a
result of this failure," Cadbury said in a statement after the judge's
sentence Monday.

The London-based group was also ordered to pay costs of more than
£152,000 by a judge at Birmingham's Crown Court, after being prosecuted
by Birmingham City Council and a neighboring council in Herefordshire.
The sentencing of both cases was brought together.

In June 2006, Cadbury admitted to the salmonella problem at one of its
UK plants, and recalled more than 1 million chocolate bars in the UK and
Irish markets, costing £30 million, as they could contain minute traces
of salmonella.

Birmingham council prosecuted Cadbury under the UK General Food
Regulations and Food Hygiene Regulations for, among other things,
failing immediately to alert authorities it had reason to believe some
of its chocolate was infected with salmonella.

Cadbury's UK chocolate manufacturing is based at Bournville, Birmingham,
in the English West Midlands. The problem occurred at its Marlbrook
plant in Herefordshire, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south-west of Birmingham.

Cadbury detected salmonella on January 19, 2006, at Marlbrook, which
produces chocolate crumb mixture, but did not admit the problem until
five months later on June 23, which it said was linked to a leaking pipe.

Analysts said the fine was not material to the group, and said
mitigating factors limiting the fine would have been that Cadbury had
quickly admitted its guilt and said it had been mistaken that the
infection did not pose a threat to health.

Cadbury's shares were largely unmoved by the ruling, 0.08 percent down
at 655 pence in a lower London market by 1450 GMT