The State : Food Co. Pays $250,000 Fine

Laura Scudder, one of the West’s leading makers of snack foods and peanut butter, has paid a $250,000 civil penalty after the Orange County district attorney accused the firm of selling products contaminated with metal machine parts and, in one instance, a dead rodent. Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Brough said the penalty is one of the largest ever received by the district attorney’s office. As part of the agreement, Scudder did not admit any wrongdoing. Brough said that state inspections of Scudder’s plants in Anaheim and Tracy revealed that the facilities were in a state of mechanical disrepair. New York-based Borden Inc., Scudder’s parent company, announced plans in late October to close the Anaheim plant because other production facilities were “better able to retain a more consistently high quality level.”