On January 30, 2009, the United States FDA officials began a criminal investigation on the Georgia processing plant for peanut butter and peanut paste that proved to be contaminated and led to the salmonella food poisoning of hundreds of people. The manufacturing process and the plant itself were found to be unsanitary. The Peanut Corporation of America plant operating in Blakely, Georgia has been in the limelight for several few weeks, especially that its unhygienic conditions caused the recall of over 400 different products containing peanut paste and peanut butter.
The alarm warnings came at least four months earlier in September when the ensuing string of 529 cases of food poisoning and 8 salmonella deaths commenced. The peanut butter food poisoning outbreak actually began with the first reports in September, escalating into several cases from start of October to end of December 2008.
By the end of January 2009, there were already more than 500 reports from 43 states, as well as hospitalization cases of more than 100 people and 8 deaths, all connected to the contaminated peanut-based products. Symptoms that surfaced with patients included diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and fever.
Eventually and in the course of four months, the FDA linked the poisoning to the same Salmonella typhimurium bacteria strain found in the peanut-based products. The alarm came too late. The salmonella poisoning had already been underway.
During the course of the FDA investigation, it was found that the Georgia plant had been having salmonella bacteria problem for a much longer time than when it was first discovered. For starters, the plant showed evidence of mold, roaches, and a leaking roof – all proven causes of bacteria culture that could have been contaminating the processing plant’s food products.
The investigation also showed that Peanut Corporation of America had always known about the salmonella contamination risk (Peanut recalls, 2009). Hence, the criminal investigation progressed because the company continued to ship its products, in spite of this knowledge. Endangering the lives of consumers, while having an awareness of the risk, is deemed a criminal offense.
It seems that Peanut Corporation of America conducted its own internal microbiological testing that showed evidence of salmonella in 2007 and 2008, prior to the salmonella poisoning outbreak. The company claimed that it continued to ship products during the interim when it wanted to get confirmation from other laboratories regarding the presence of bacteria.
According to Saiontz, Kirk & Miles, a legal forum website, the salmonella-infected peanut butter was first traced to large containers of the food stuff that were sold to hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other food outlets where, at one instance, the salmonella strain was identified in January 9, 2009 in a 5lb. recalled container of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing home (Peanut butter recall lawyers, n.d.). King Nut Companies issued a product recall of more than 1,000 containers the very next day. King Nut sourced their peanut butter from the Georgia plant of Peanut Corporation of America. The Peanut Corporation of America followed suit on January 13, 2009 and issued its own product recall.
Via CNN
