Possibly tainted peanut butter sent to schools

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Posted on 6th February 2009 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 2/6/2009

By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department shipped possibly contaminated peanut butter and other foods to schools in at least three states under a contract with the Georgia company blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak.

The government abruptly suspended all business with the company Thursday, as officials defended their efforts to halt the outbreak that has sickened at least 575 people in 43 states. At least eight have died. It’s become one of the largest food recalls ever, including more than 1,300 products.

The potentially contaminated products went to school free lunch programs in California, Minnesota and Idaho in 2007, the Department of Agriculture said Friday. Peanut butter and roasted peanuts processed by the Peanut Corp. of America were sent to the schools.

None of the states reported illnesses as a result of students eating the recalled peanut products.

Jim Brownlee, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department, said there have been no potentially contaminated shipments from the company in the last year. It was unclear how much of the suspect food might still remain uneaten at the schools.

Despite ongoing reports of illnesses linked to the company, the Agriculture department only Thursday suspended Peanut Corp. from participating in government contract programs, for at least a year. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also removed Stewart Parnell, president of the company, from USDA’s Peanut Standards Board.

The company’s actions indicate that it “lacks business integrity and business honesty, which seriously and directly hinders its ability to do business with the federal government,” said David Shipman, acting administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, said in a statement.

The recalled foods used ingredients from the Peanut Corp. processing plant in Blakely, Ga. While the outbreak appears to be slowing down, new illnesses are still being reported.

School officials across the country have been checking cafeterias and vending machines for the recalled products, and some have stopped serving any peanut-related products at all, out of an abundance of caution.

The Food and Drug Administration learned only weeks ago that the Peanut Corp. of America had received a series of private tests dating back to 2007 showing salmonella in their products from the Georgia plant, but later shipped the items after obtaining negative test results.

The Agriculture Department initially said that school meal programs were not affected by the large-scale recall. But that changed when Peanut Corp. expanded its recall to all peanut products made at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007.

At a Senate hearing Thursday on the salmonella outbreak, lawmakers reacted angrily when told that food companies and state safety inspectors don’t have to report to the FDA when test results find pathogens in a processing plant, leaving the federal government in the dark.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Peanut product recall tops list of bad foods

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Posted on 5th February 2009 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 2/5/2009

By The Associated Press

The recall of peanut products because of possible salmonella contamination has mushroomed into one of the largest.

Depending on how recalls are measured, few others come close. If counted by the number of products, more than 1,313 have been recalled as of Thursday. The closest is the 1,177 pet food products recalled in 2007 after melamine was discovered in some ingredients.

If measured in pounds, the February 2008 recall of beef from a California packaging plant would top the list, with 143 million pounds affected.

The current salmonella outbreak has been blamed for eight deaths and 575 illnesses. A June 2008 salmonella contamination of tomatoes and jalapeno peppers made more people ill — more than 1,200.

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Breakdown of recent national food contaminations that triggered recalls and warnings to consumers:

—January 2009: Peanuts, peanut paste, peanut butter; 1,313 products recalled; salmonella contamination; produced by Peanut Corp. of America in Georgia; more than 575 illnesses and eight deaths reported.

—June 2008: Tomatoes and raw jalapeno peppers; more than $100 million in crops affected; salmonella contamination; grown in Mexico; more than 1,200 illnesses reported and no deaths.

—February 2008: beef; more than 143 million pounds affected; unfit, weak and sick cattle slaughtered for human consumption; packed by Westland Meat Co. in California; no illnesses or deaths reported.

—March 2007: Pet food; 1,177 products recalled; melamine contamination; produced from vegetable proteins imported from China. no human illnesses or deaths reported, but more than 14,000 pet illnesses and 16 deaths.

—September 2006: Spinach; more than $86 million in crops affected; E. coli contamination; grown in California; more than 200 illnesses and three deaths reported.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Peanut plant problem forces fresh recall

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Posted on 29th January 2009 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 1/29/2009

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Worried about salmonella, the Army said Thursday it’s removing some peanut butter items from warehouses in Europe, the latest in an ever-growing list of recalled peanut products linked to a national salmonella outbreak.

Already more than 430 kinds of cakes, cookies and other goods in the civilian world have been pulled off store shelves in what the Food and Drug Administration is calling one of the largest product recalls in memory. The Army’s recall does not affect Meals-Ready-to-Eat, but another kind of military grub called Unitized Group Rations-A, which provide a complete 50-person meal.

More than 500 people have gotten sick in the U.S. outbreak, and at least eight may have died as a result of salmonella infection.

At the center of the investigation is a Georgia peanut processing plant where federal inspectors reported finding roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitary problems.

Managers at the Blakely, Ga., plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America continued shipping peanut products even after they were found to contain salmonella, the FDA said. The company shipped the food items after retesting them and getting negative results.

Peanut Corp. expanded its recall Wednesday to all peanut goods produced at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. The company makes just 1 percent of the peanut products sold in the United States, but those products are ingredients in hundreds of other foods, from ice cream, to Asian-style sauces, to dog biscuits. Major national brands of peanut butter are not affected.

A senior lawmaker in Congress and Georgia’s agriculture commissioner called for a criminal probe of the company, but the FDA said that would be premature while its own food safety investigation continues.

The company says it is fully cooperating with the government and has stopped all production at the plant. Peanut Corp. said in a statement it “categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products.”

Stewart Parnell, the firm’s president, said that the recall was expanded out of an abundance of caution.

“We have been devastated by this, and we have been working around the clock with the FDA to ensure any potentially unsafe products are removed from the market immediately,” Parnell said.

Most of the older products in the expanded recall have probably been eaten already. Officials said they see no signs of any earlier outbreaks from those goods.

The recall covers peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut meal and granulated products, as well as all peanuts — dry and oil roasted — shipped from the factory. FDA officials could not quantify the amount of products being recalled.

Officials recommend that consumers check the FDA web site, which lists all the products being recalled, and toss out any that are named.

Salmonella had been found previously at least 12 times in products made at the plant, but production lines were never cleaned after internal tests indicated contamination, FDA inspectors said in a report. Products that initially tested positive were retested. When the company got a negative reading, it shipped the products out.

That happened as recently as September. A month later, health officials started picking up signals of the salmonella outbreak.

Michael Rogers, a senior FDA investigator, said it’s possible for salmonella to hide in small pockets of a large batch of peanut butter. That means the same batch can yield both positive and negative results, he said. The products should have been discarded after they first tested positive.

Separately, senior congressional and state officials on Wednesday called for a federal probe of possible criminal violations at the plant.

The company’s actions “can only be described as reprehensible and criminal,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who oversees FDA funding. “This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system.”

In Georgia, the state’s top agriculture official joined DeLauro in asking the Justice Department to determine whether the case warrants criminal prosecution.

“They tried to hide it so they could sell it,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin. “Now they’ve caused a mammoth problem that could destroy their company — and it could destroy the peanut industry.”

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On the Net:

FDA’s recall page: http://tinyurl.com/8srctw

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

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