Bacteria in Peanut Butter Linked to Leak

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1000&u_sid=10011419

Published Friday | April 6, 2007
Bacteria in Peanut Butter Linked to Leak
By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer
The Associated Press


OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Moisture from a leaky roof and faulty sprinkler helped salmonella bacteria grow and contaminate peanut butter at its Georgia plant last year, sickening more than 400 people nationwide, ConAgra Foods said.

The Omaha-based company conducted a nearly two-month investigation into the contamination and pledged to ensure that Peter Pan peanut butter is safe when it returns to stores in mid-July.

"Consumer safety and health is our top priority," ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said Thursday. "We plan to do our best to regain consumer trust once Peter Pan returns to stores."

Childs said the company traced the salmonella outbreak to three problems at its Sylvester, Ga., plant last August.

The plant's roof leaked during a rainstorm, and the sprinkler system went off twice because of a faulty sprinkler, which was repaired.

The moisture from those three events mixed with dormant salmonella bacteria in the plant that Childs said likely came from raw peanuts and peanut dust.

The plant was cleaned thoroughly after the roof leak and sprinkler problem, but the salmonella remained and somehow came in contact with peanut butter before it was packaged, she said.

ConAgra recalled all its peanut butter in February after federal health officials linked it to cases of salmonella infection. At least 425 people in 44 states were sickened, and lawsuits have been filed against the company.

The recall covered all Peter Pan peanut butter and all Great Value peanut butter made at the Sylvester plant since October 2004. That plant is ConAgra's only peanut butter plant.

FULL story at link.

This story is, well, a story. I like the part about the salmonella "somehow" coming in contact with the peanut butter. Can't really explain that one, can we? MKJ

...after a loo break. (Or who didn't want to get docked for taking a minute "too long".)

Toss in a large dose of idiot consumers (too young to have heard of Typhoid Mary) against "adulteration" of their food (ie. pasturisation) and the surprise is that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

Maybe it was down to bad workplace policies from on high, but more often than not it's poor implementation/policing of policies written within the letter of the law (albeit as closely as management dares in too many cases) by people too bloody thick to understand that "these idiotic rule" actually have valid reasons.

Lean back against the wall in a sandwich shop for a while and watch. Watch the food handlers: rub their noses with the back of their hands; take money in the glove they wear to "protect" your food; use the same utensils (which are neither refrigerated or heated) all day without washing them.