IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) A rural Iowa company has agreed to pay $6.8 million in fines for selling old eggs with false labels and the tainted products that caused a nationwide salmonella outbreak in 2010, according to authorities.

Quality Egg LLC, once one of the nation's largest egg producers, is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to charges of bribing a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector to approve sales of poor quality eggs, selling misbranded eggs and introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce.

The company's owner, its chief operating officer, and a plant manager are expected to plead guilty to introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce, a misdemeanor. They face sentences ranging from probation to one year in jail. Owner Jack DeCoster, 79, of Turner, Maine, and his 50-year-old son Peter, of Clarion, Iowa, have agreed to pay $100,000 fines each.

Courtdocuments add new details to the unethical and unsafe business practices at Quality Egg, which operated a network of businesses inthat produced more than 1 million eggs daily. The government blamed its tainted shell eggs for a 2010 salmonella outbreak that sickened thousands and led to the unprecedented recall of 550 million eggs.

Investigators found no evidence that the DeCosters knew they were selling tainted products in 2010. But as corporate officers, they were in position to "detect, prevent and correct the sale of the contaminated eggs," the plea agreements say.

Company manager Tony Wasmund directed and approved a practice of putting false processing and expiration dates on eggs that had been in storage for several days or weeks to make them appear far fresher. Many of the eggs had been in storage for 14 to 40 days or longer.

The practice allowed Quality Egg to avoid having to sell surplus eggs for half price to a breaker facility, where they are sanitized and turned into a liquid product. Instead, the "distressed eggs" were sold to wholesalers at a higher price; only eggs that were moldy went to a breaker, Wasmund told investigators.

Wasmund and another employee also bribed a USDA inspector at least twice to approve pallets of shell eggs that did not meet minimum quality standards. In particular, the pallets had too high a percentage of eggs that were cracked, leaking, dirty or inedible. The inspector has since died of natural causes.

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