PCA Head Hit With Suit

Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell is being sued as an individual by alleged victims of the salmonella outbreak. Food and Drug Administration officials say the contamination occurred at PCA's Blakely plant.

Emails and other documents suggest Parnell knew batches of peanut products were contaminated when they were shipped. Several emails suggest Parnell was more concerned about the costs of holding the product instead of public health.

The suit was filed by Seattle based attorney Bill Marler in Georgia's Middle District Federal court. The plaintiffs are Derek and Cindy Trone.

Video: Peanut Co. Files for Bankruptcy

The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak has filed for bankruptcy.

The Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America filed Friday for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Lynchburg, Va. The company's attorney, Andrew Goldstein, says the filing was "regrettable" but inevitable.

The company said in the filing that its debt and assets both ranged between $1 million and $10 million.

The salmonella outbreak was traced to one of the company's plants in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold and a leaking roof. A second plant in Texas was shuttered this week. The outbreak has resulted in more than 500 illnesses, led to one of the nation's biggest recalls and may have caused as many as nine deaths.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the salmonella outbreak, and its effect on Blakely.

Proposal Would Make it Mandatory to Share Test Results Showing Contaminants

A key Senate committee is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would require food manufacturers to alert state investigators within a day of their internal test results that show a contaminant. This comes in response to the salmonella outbreak stemming from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Blakely, Georgia.

This proposal would also force the companies to conduct the tests at least once a year.

Food safety experts, government groups and industry lobbies say they don't know of any states that have such a requirement.

(AP)

FBI Now Involved in FDA Investigation of Georgia Peanut Plant

Special Agent Gregory Jones says the FBI is now "fully involved" in helping the Food and Drug Administration's inquiry into the Peanut Corporation of America's plant based in Blakely, Georgia.

Federal officials are saying that the company was aware it was shipping salmonella-tainted products. Tests have confirmed the contamination.

Politicians are calling for criminal charges.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened hundreds and may be the cause of eight deaths. It has led to one of the country’s biggest food recalls and a wave of lawsuits.

(AP)

Video: FDA: Plant Knowingly Sold Salmonella-laced Food

From school lunches to nutrition bars and ice cream, the nationwide salmonella outbreak has reached deep into the American food supply — even though many people had never heard of the small company at the center of the investigation until a few weeks ago.

The food manufacturer, Peanut Corp. of America, has just a few plants scattered across the South, but it may be responsible for one of the nation's largest food recalls in history.

Federal investigators on Friday said the Lynchburg, Va.-based company knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products from its Blakely, Ga., plant after tests showed the products were contaminated. Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers' health.

So far, the salmonella outbreak has sickened about 575 people in 43 states and may have contributed to at least eight deaths. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and more than 1,550 products have been recalled.

The company has denied any wrongdoing, but said it is investigating.

Before the scandal, Peanut Corp. was a little-known but ambitious company that began in the 1970s as a family catering operation.

"We started this business working out of our house in Virginia with my mom doing all the accounting," company president Stewart Parnell had been quoted on the company's Web site.

The peanut processing business grew over the years. The company bought a plant in Georgia in 2001, opened another in Texas four years later, and was also running a plant in Virginia.

Friends and business associates said Parnell was dedicated.

"He certainly has gone out and done some things on his own — he didn't just lay around. He's been aggressive," said Eddie Marks, who runs a Virginia storage company and has known Parnell for 15 years.

But even as the company expanded and began to process millions of pounds of peanuts per month, its headquarters was still a two-story building behind Parnell's house. He even had his own brand of peanut products: "Parnell's Pride."

Belying the ambition, there were problems.

About nine months after Parnell bought the Georgia plant in 2001, potential insecticide contamination and dead insects were found near peanuts inspected by the Food and Drug Administration.

More recently, state inspections in 2006 and 2007 found some sanitary problems. After another inspection in October, state officials discovered only relatively minor violations.

But less than three months later, a federal investigation found roaches, mold and other unsanitary conditions.

The potential repercussions began to emerge. The Agriculture Department said it may have shipped possibly contaminated peanut butter and other foods to free school lunch programs in California, Minnesota and Idaho in 2007. The Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged that it distributed meals to disaster victims that may have included the potentially tainted peanut butter.

And it was discovered that the company's Plainview, Texas, plant didn't register with state health officials there after opening in March 2005 and only recently was discovered and inspected.

However, the most serious issue surfaced in inspection records released Friday by the Food and Drug Administration. The reports showed that in 2007 the company shipped chopped peanuts on July 18 and 24 after salmonella was confirmed by private lab tests.

FDA officials earlier had said Peanut Corp. waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanuts that initially tested positive for salmonella. But the agency amended its report, noting that the Georgia plant actually shipped some products before receiving the second test and sold others even after confirming salmonella.

A Peanut Corp. lawyer said the company is investigating and had no comment on the latest FDA findings. The company previously said it "categorically denies any allegations" that it sought lab results that would put its products in a favorable light.

Details of the privately held company have been slow to turn up, and what has come out hasn't been from Parnell. He has repeatedly declined to speak to reporters.

Parnell's friends and business partners described him as a hardworking, soft-spoken man who had a good rapport with the dozens of contacts he made over the years.

"He had a good reputation," said Jeffrey Pope, a peanut farmer who has done business with Parnell's Virginia plant. "People respected him. He's been in the industry for more than 30 years and he's been a mainstay."

Southwest Georgia peanut industry officials say Parnell didn't spend much time in the state, instead leaving the day-to-day dealings to others.

His reputation earned him a vaunted spot on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Peanut Standards Board, which is charged with helping the government establish quality and handling standards for the nation's peanuts.

But several board members said they were unaware Parnell was on the panel, and some said the board rarely met. When they did, it was often by teleconference.

Parnell was removed from the board Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Peanut Corp. was suspended from participating in government contract programs for at least a year.

The company has said in statements that it is deeply concerned.

"The product recalls issued by our company continue to expeditiously remove all potentially harmful products from the marketplace, in the best interest of the public's health and safety," a statement midweek said.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

PCA Employees Come Forward With Details

Employees at the Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely plant are coming forward to fill in details about the unsanitary conditions.

In separate interviews, four employees say 55 gallon drums were used to collect water falling from the roof on rainy days, and that an inoperable freezer covered in mildew stored peanut products.

The holes in the roof were so large, it was common for birds to fly in to the facility, says former plant janitor Anne Bristow.

"If I would see a bird, I’d go and tell [the manager]. They would normally be in the box room. He’d go and get his little pellet gun and shoot. "

Another employee confirmed Bristow’s account, and added that instead of fixing the holes in the roof, the company bought decoy owls and mounted them around the building in an attempt to scare animals away.

Through statements, PCA says they followed the law, but have not returned calls to respond to these claims.

Blakely Peanut Plant Knew of Salmonella Since 2007

Federal health officials say the Blakely peanut plant at the center of the salmonella outbreak had internal data that showed salmonella bacteria as far back as 2007. Plant officials were not required by law to share the information. Now state lawmakers want to change that.

Federal officials apparently evoked homeland security law in order to get access to internal plant documents at the Peanut Corporation of America Blakely facility. They revealed that routing quick tests on several occasions showed the presence of salmonella bacteria. Oscar Garrison with the Georgia Department of agriculture says current law does not require companies to share such information with state investigators.

"Companies want to do testing and we don’t want to discourage internal testing. But if they do the testing, which we won't require them to do, then they need to make those results available to us- particularly when they find excessive problems."

As a result, state lawmakers are currently drafting a bill that would require companies to hand over internal test results to public inspectors. Meanwhile FDA officials have left the plant in blakely and moved on to the companies Virginia.

FDA: Blakely Plant Did Not Follow Safe Practices

A day after Georgia agriculture officials made public its inspection reports of a Blakely peanut butter plant, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighed-in with its findings. The FDA says 12 times in the last two years the plant found evidence of salmonella contamination, but still sold its product after an outside lab determined it was safe. Federal health officials also say more than one salmonella strain has been identified from the southwest Georgia plant, owned by Peanut Corporation of America. The company in a statement says it has fully cooperated with the investigation. More than 300 products containing peanut butter have been recalled nationwide. More than 500 people have been sickened, with possibly eight deaths linked to the outbreak. Today at the State Capitol, the Georgia House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs committee will meet to discuss the Blakely-plant outbreak.

Georgia Plant Is Salmonella Source

Federal health officials say now that a south Georgia peanut butter plant is believed to be the sole source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 480 people nationwide. The outbreak is also possibly linked to six deaths. Still under investigation is peanut paste made at a Blakely,Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America. Federal officials now say more than 125 products have been recalled--everything from cakes to ice cream...to dog biscuits containing peanut butter.

Peanut Butter-Salmonella Update from CDC

Federal health officials now say a national salmonella outbreak tied to a south Georgia peanut butter plant has grown to 485 cases across 43 states and Canada. The outbreak may have also contributed to six deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says the case-number has been climbing as lab tests confirm a similar salmonella strain. Officials urge consumers for the time being to avoid products such as cookies, cakes and other foods containing peanut butter. Peanut butter sold in jars is NOT included in the warning. Peanut Corporation of America owns the Blakely, Georgia plant in question. Its product is sold to institutions and food companies, not consumers directly.