CHOCOLATE giant Cadbury apologised to the victims of a national salmonella outbreak last night after being fined £1 million for food safety offences.
Cadbury, described by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court as a trusted household name, said it unreservedly accepted the financial penalty and had already spent £20 million to prevent a repeat of the poisoning.
Passing sentence, Recorder James Guth
rie QC criticised the Bournville-based confectioner for its "lack of scrutiny" in adopting a new product testing system which introduced an "allowable tolerance level" of salmonella contamination.
He also ordered Cadbury, which made £931 million profits last year, to pay costs of more than £152,000. The confectioner had pleaded guilty to nine food safety breaches at earlier hearings.
The charges, which included a failure to notify the authorities of positive tests for salmonella, were brought by Birmingham City Council and Herefordshire Council after 42 people fell ill in the first half of last year.
The court fined Cadbury £500,000 for putting unsafe chocolate on sale and £100,000 on each of two other charges brought by Birmingham City Council.
The judge also fined the firm £50,000 for each of six offences relating to food safety breaches at its factory in Marlbrook, Herefordshire, including a leaking pipe which was the source of the salmonella.
Birmingham Crown Court was told last week how Cadbury failed to inform the authorities of dozens of tests which showed its products contained the salmonella organism.
The court also heard that the food poisoning alert followed a decision by Cadbury in 2003 to change its product testing systems to allow a "tolerance level" of salmonella cells in its chocolate.
The judge said everyone who opened and ate a bar produced by Cadbury, or gave one to a child as a treat, did so in the belief that it was entirely safe.
Recorder Guthrie also said Cadbury now accepted that its new testing system, which was based on a misunderstanding of scientific literature, was badly flawed.
The judge told the court: "The new system marked a distinct departure from previous practice - it seems strange this took place without greater evaluation.
"However, I am not satisfied that Cadbury consciously thought that they were taking a risk with people's health.
"It is my view that the avoidance of wastage and the accompanying benefit of reducing costs was no doubt welcome and contributed to the lack of scrutiny which the change ought to have received."
Barry Berlin, prosecuting on behalf of Birmingham City Council, told the court on Friday that, until 2003, Cadbury had destroyed any chocolate which tested positive for salmonella. He added: "They then changed it to what they believed to be an allowable tolerance level."
In a statement, Cadbury apologised and offered its "sincere regrets" to the people who were taken ill.
A spokesman said: "Quality has always been at the heart of our business, but the process we followed in the UK in this instance has been shown to be unacceptable."
More than a million products were recalled by Cadbury on 23 June last year, costing it £15 million, and it has already spent a further £20 million on improvements.
Cadbury was represented at the hearing by Anthony Scrivener QC, who submitted that Cadbury had not been motivated by commercial considerations when it changed its testing methods.
"All the indications are that it was done to improve safety," Mr Scrivener said.
Richard Lodge, Birmingham City Council's head of food safety, said: "The decision to prosecute reflects the seriousness of the offences and the company's decision to keep important information relating to the safety of its products from the relevant authorities."
FINED FOR FOOD HYGIENE FAILURES
SOME 21 people died in Lanarkshire in 1996 in the world's worst recorded outbreak of E coli poisoning. All the dead in the outbreak, which affected about 500 people, were pensioners who ate tainted meat at a free lunch. The butcher who supplied the meat was later fined £2,250.
Britain's biggest botulism outbreak, which killed one woman and affected 27 other people, was caused by contaminated hazelnut purée used in yoghurt. Young's Fruits admitted selling it to yoghurt-maker Acorn Foods and was fined £3,000.
In 2002, Edinburgh vegetarian restaurant Henderson's was fined £7,500 after inspectors found rodent droppings and dirty trays and surfaces at its bakery in the city.
