IDF to pay $250K fine for export error

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri this morning accepted a plea agreement from Springfield-based International Dehydrated Foods Inc. in a case involving inaccurate date documentation for a shipment to South America.

IDF board chairman Tom Slaight entered the plea this morning in Kansas City. The agreement stipulates that IDF pay a $250,000 fine and $77,282 for the cost of the government investigation.

The investigation started in 2005 when U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors noticed the documentation error and alerted IDF, Slaight told Springfield Business Journal via cell phone on his return trip from Kansas City. IDF in 2004 had entered an incorrect date on a shipping certificate for a 660-pound shipment of chicken powder, chicken fat and chicken broth, all exported to a single customer in South America.

"Obviously, we learned coming out of that investigation that this mistake was serious, and we fully believe in all our work that accurate information is important to us," Slaight said.

The food production and distribution industry is highly regulated, Slaight said, and documentation varies from country to country. Since the date error came to light, IDF has taken steps to prevent similar mistakes by becoming "as familiar as we need to be with each of the documentations," he said.

Slaight added that the incident had nothing to do with the safety or quality of the product itself.

IDF manufactures further processed meat and poultry ingredients in frozen, concentrated and powdered forms, according to a company news release. The company's products are distributed worldwide.