Personal Injury Law

FDA and CDC - Four Types of Salmonella Found at Peanut Corporation of America

By Bill Marler, Esq.

According to AP, FDA and CDC officials say four kinds of salmonella have been identified in the growing investigation of tainted peanut products.  A congressional official briefed on the investigation said health officials have identified four types of salmonella as they focus on a Georgia facility. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.  Salmonella Typhimurium is the strain that caused the illnesses. Two other strains were found on the floor of the facility and a third in a container of peanut butter from the plant.

Usually, we get one outbreak strain of bacteria as opposed to four in any given outbreak.  I would expect this to mean the recall may expand in both in time (going back further into 2008) and scope (amount of product to be recalled).

Just got this email:

The company also KNEW that it had salmonella in the plant, but continued to ship peanut butter and instead of instituting better hygiene, sought out a different lab that gave it a "negative-for-salmonella" report.... Tomorrow, the FDA will post its entire investigatory report online, which will reveal all of the violations and the full scope of their inspection. I've asked whether they know of an animal source that might have introduced so much salmonella into one plant, and was told to "read the 483 tomorrow."

And, we complain about Chinese food safety?

Full post as published by Marler Blog on January 27, 2009 (boomark / email).