Cadbury fined £1m for salmonella offences

The confectionery giant Cadbury was fined £1m yesterday over a national salmonella outbreak which gave 42 people food poisoning and put three of them in hospital.

 The Birmingham-based company was forced to recall more than
a million chocolate bars last June, after changing its policy on testing for
the bacteria from permitting none to allowing a "tolerance level".
Although 36 positive tests for salmonella were recorded in
January and February 2006, it was not until the suffering of victims several
months later was linked to Cadbury that the products were pulled from the
shelves.
At Birmingham crown court, the recorder, James Guthrie QC,
said that the confectioner had fallen "seriously short" of its
obligations.