Georgia Peanut Butter Plant Knowingly Shipped Food With Salmonella For Over A Year For Over A Year

Georgia Peanut Butter Plant Knowingly Shipped Food With Salmonella For Over A Year For Over A Year. The FDA and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention have been investigating this most recent salmonella outbreak and have recently found that the Peanut Corporation of America detected salmonella in internal tests twelve times in 2007 and 2008.
They received positive salmonella results from different laboratories. Yet despite these positive detections,they still sold their products to companies who make peanut butter products.
So, what we have is a maker of peanut butter linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella shipped tainted product, that knew they had tested positive for salmonella bacteria.
This company is the Peanut Corporation of America Their plant with the salmonella poisoning is in Blakely, Georgia.

The FDA has reported that the Peanut Corporation of America’s own testing program found strains of salmonella 12 times in 2007 and 2008 at its Blakely, Georgia, plant. The problem does not appear to have been resolved.
FDA inspectors visited the PCA plant this month, they reported finding still more salmonella contamination. In that report, the FSA reports that the “firm’s own internal microbiological testing” found salmonella in peanut paste, peanut butter, peanut meal, peanut granules and oil-roasted, salted peanuts.
FDA concluded that, “After the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was still shipped.”
The Georgia Department of Agriculture is working with the FDA on the investigation of the outbreak, which has been linked to the plant.
“The inspection also revealed no steps were taken in terms of cleaning or cross-contamination” after the salmonella was found in the plant, said FDA’s director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Dr. Stephen Sundlof.
The company did not clean the production line after Salmonella Typhimurium, the bacterium implicated in the outbreak, was found there last September, according to the FDA report. This is the same type of bacteria found in 502 people who have become ill in 43 states and Canada since September. At least eight deaths have been linked to the outbreak.
Food violations also included contamination of plant surfaces and equipment by other microorganisms, the discovery of roaches near production and packaging areas and the inability of the company’s ventilation system to prevent the salmonella from contaminating other parts of the plant. Sounds like one pretty nasty food processing plant to me. One I could not even work in.
The FDA investigation began January 9, 2009, as soon as the manufacturer was implicated as the original source of the salmonella outbreak.
The PCA plant produces peanut butter sold to institutions, such as nursing homes and cafeterias, as well as peanut paste, which is used in cookies, crackers, ice cream and pet treats, with than 300 products using PCA’s peanut paste and peanut butter products recalled and the FDA has urged consumers to check the agency’s Web site frequently for updates.
Federal health officials recommend that consumers throw away any recalled products and not consume any products whose safety cannot be verified.
The American Peanut Council has compiled a list of companies not implicated in the recall on www.peanutsusa.com. But remember that PAC, theGeorgia Peanut Butter Plant Knowingly Shipped Food With Salmonella For Over A Year . Can you trust them? I don’t.
For more information go to CNN News and read these BBAC posts about Georgia Peanut Butter Plant Knowingly Shipped Food With Salmonella For Over A Year.

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