Cadbury Schweppes today pleaded guilty to charges of selling unsafe chocolate in Britain and Ireland during 2006 in a case brought by an English local council.
"Cadbury has indicated that it will be pleading guilty to the charges brought by Birmingham City Council in relation to the contamination of certain Cadbury products last year," the world's largest confectionery group said.
"Mistakenly, we did not believe that there was a threat to health and thus any requirement to report the incident to the authorities - we accept that this approach was incorrect," it added.
Cadbury was appearing before Birmingham Magistrates' Court after Birmingham City Council decided to prosecute the London-based group.
The council is prosecuting Cadbury under the General Food Regulations and the Food Hygiene Regulations for, amongst other things, failing to immediately alert authorities it had reason to believe some of its chocolate was infected with salmonella.