Disability Law

Plainview Peanut Corp. LLC was fined over alleged violations that include unsanitary conditions, product contamination, illnesses linked to peanuts from the plant and operating for almost four years without a food manufacturer's license, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

The Plainview plant voluntarily closed Feb. 9 after a private lab sample showed likely salmonella contamination. Texas health officials later ordered a recall of products there.

The plant's owner, Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America, is blamed for an outbreak that has sickened nearly 700 people and is said to be the cause of at least nine deaths.

Doug McBride, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the fine was the largest ever levied by the department and needed to be done regardless of the bankruptcy filing.

In January, federal investigators identified a Georgia peanut processing plant operated by Peanut Corp. as the source of the salmonella outbreak. Thousands of possibly contaminated consumer products have been recalled in one of the largest product recalls ever.