U.S. peanut plant (managers knew they) shipped salmonella-tainted products: FDA

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A peanut plant in Georgia identified as the source of an outbreak of salmonella shipped out products that managers knew might have been tainted, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said on Tuesday.

An FDA inspection of the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, also found at least two strains of salmonella bacteria at the plant, although they were strains that have not been associated with the current outbreak, the officials said.

<snip>

"The team identified approximately 12 instances in 2007 and 2008 where the firm identified some type of salmonella ... and released the products," the FDA's Michael Rogers told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Records at the plant showed that after the company tested the peanut products and found salmonella, it sent at least some to an outside lab that showed no contamination. The products were then illegally shipped for sale, Rogers said.

"There (were) no steps taken (by) the firm as far as cleaning or to minimize cross-contamination," Rogers said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50Q6RC20090128

cookies, crackers, snack bars, etc. Typically they test incoming ingredients. Did none of them ever pick up the salmonella? Or did all of them cover it up and pass it along?

They took their supplier's word for it rather than doing their own test.

In China they killed the plant managers responsible for the tainted milk.

:)

we are a growing blue minority here in GA.

whoever was in charge, that is.

we have to set an example here. Even just the sheer hell of going through a trial and owing an attorney your ass for the rest of your life will be enough to maybe have an influence on food producers who don't otherwise have sufficient moral and ethical standards to protect the public from known pathogens.

Paging ADA Jack McCoy. Paging ADA Jack McCoy.

This last summer I was sick as a dog for six weeks with HORRIBLE salmonella symptoms. I was hospitalized five times and almost didn't make it. I eat peanut butter all the time. I'm thinking this may very well have been the source of my illness.

Go check out what you can about Peanut Corporation of America.

have a somewhat more forceful way of dealing with executives who knowingly ship tainted products...... Ms Bigmack

If the second case, they should be charged with negligent homicide; if the first, they should be charged with murder.

Get caught doing this in Japan and you commit suicide, in China you get executed, in America you get a bonus.

"Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else...You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business."

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: January 28, 2009

The Georgia food plant that federal investigators say knowingly shipped contaminated peanut butter also had mold growing on its ceiling and walls, and it has foot-long gaps in its roof, according to results of a federal inspection ...

The report from the inspection, first posted on the Internet by Bill Marler, a lawyer, cites 12 instances in 2007 and 2008 in which the company’s own tests of its product found contamination by salmonella.

In each case, the report states, “after the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped in interstate commerce.”

It is illegal for a company to continue testing a product until it gets a clean test, said Michael Taylor, a food safety expert at George Washington University ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/us/29Peanut.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

How can you own a food processing plant and not keep it spotless? How can you justify shipping contaminated food? Accidentally would be bad enough, but to know the food was bad and to still ship it? I don't see how they can let themselves continue living with the shame and guilt. Unless they just have zero of either.

In China they execute company executives that are responsible for their products causing death. In our country not one CEO has ever gotten more than a fine for causing things like leukemia cancer clusters in thousands of kids when they illegally dumped waste into drinking water sheds or local streams that the kids played around.

I think we need to start being as tough on these criminals as China is.

Someone got the idea that making this quarter's numbers was more important than anything else, including plant maintenance and HACCP compliance.

if only they hadn't got caught. The other times they got away with it, though, that WAS good business.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6749660&page=1
The FDA announced that a closed Georgia peanut processing plant will recall every single peanut product it made in the past two years. The expansion means that the number of recalled food and pet treats -- already in the hundreds -- will continue to grow.

:eyes:

but a bunch of Texas Trashers who were working 24/7 to get RID OF ANY REGULATION to turn it over to BIG BUSINESS and US Chamber of Commerce!

And...we ask why our homes, food and every where in our life is not TAINTED by DEREGULATION because of GLOBILIZATION and we end up with CHINESE DRY WALL! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

... The company's actions "can only be described as reprehensible and criminal," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who oversees Food and Drug Administration funding. "Not only did this company knowingly sell tainted products, it shopped for a laboratory that would provide the acceptable results they were seeking. This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system" ...''

"They tried to hide it so they could sell it," said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. "Now they've caused a mammoth problem that could destroy their company — and it could destroy the peanut industry" ...

Irvin, the Georgia agriculture official, said he was outraged by the company's actions and said a state criminal probe was possible. He would not, however, specify which Georgia laws the company may have violated for fear it would help the company start planning its defense.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers were drafting a plan to require food makers to report the results of internal inspections to state officials, something the peanut plant in Blakely wasn't required to do ...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-01-27-peanut-salmonella_N.htm?csp=34

Shouldn't we all be concerned? How many School Lunch Programs might have bought that tanted "commercial use" peanut butter and it's in our food supply for a couple of years? Already eaten...and you had to pay the bill (with money you didn't have) when your kid got sick and they told you it was just "stomach flu." :-( How MUCH LONGER could they have COVERED THIS DAMNED THING UP! and WHAT ELSE ARE THEY COVERING UP? :-(

The CEO of that firm should be tried for murder.

This incident is entirely a creation of a piece of cronyism embedded in the way that peanut standards are formulated by the USDA.

A few years ago, the Republicans passed a piece of legislation that required peanut regulations to be approved by a board which included industry representatives.

The owner of PCA was subsequently appointed to the damned board.

This was no surprise. This was no accident. This was a direct consequence of Stewart Parnell's peculiar relationship to the very regulations which were supposed to govern the manner in which he ran his plant.

PCA is not some anonymous collection of shareholders. It is a closely held family company in Lynchburg, VA, and Stewart Parnell is a fucking murderer.

The son of a bitch has killed five people, and he makes a damned comfortable living doing it.