Personal Injury Law

Peanut Corporation of America Found Salmonella & Sold Products Anyway

By Jessica Smagacz

Federal Health officials said yesterday that the Peanut Corporation of America failed to follow safe food practices when it found evidence of salmonella bacteria in its products and STILL SOLD THEM, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

This comes after further investigation into the Peanut Corporation of America’s Georgia plant that was confirmed as the link to the national salmonella outbreak. See our past post here for all of the product recalls having peanut butter and peanut paste.

This Georgia plant actually found salmonella contamination on 12 occasions in the past two years. However, they still sold the products after an outside lab said the product was safe.

FDA said, “The Blakely, GA plant should have followed safe food practices and destroyed, rather than sold, the products.” They violated the law and now as a result more than 500 people in 43 states have been sickened with salmonella and in 8 cases have been linked to death.

FDA’s federal officials and Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday, “the company’s internal records revealed that in 2007 and 2008 the company’s own lab found the peanut products contained the bacteria.” Actually, the Peanut Corporation failed to release these records in the initial investigation. So, did they have something to hide? Obviously, seeing as salmonella bacteria was confirmed at the Georgia plant and now they are responsible for the nationwide salmonella outbreak.

Apparently, the Peanut Corporation of America was not required to notify FDA when its internal testing found salmonella. Investigators were only give access to the Peanut Corporation of America’s records after “invoking federal laws put into place by Homeland Security.” What do you think about this?

The company has declined to comment any further. Because salmonella was confirmed at the Georgia plant, it has led the recall of more than 300 products including candy, ice cream, cereal, cookies, and even pet food (produced by 70 companies).

There has also been a peanut butter lawsuit filed due to salmonella contamination.

Through more investigation, the state of Georgia found reports “revealing the facility has a history of sanitation problems including grease and dirt buildup, unmarked chemical containers and gaps large enough for rodents in doors.”

What do you think about this?

Full post as published by Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer on January 28, 2009 (boomark / email).