Representatives from the peanut industry plan to gather in Blakely in southwest Georgia to boost the image of the legume that has suffered a bout of bad publicity lately. Industry representatives will gather Saturday in the town's court square for the Peanut Proud Expo. The event will feature live music, free peanut snacks, educational exhibits and a peanut recipe contest. Blakely is home to the Peanut Corp. of America plant that was linked to the national salmonella outbreak that prompted one of the largest retail recalls ever, sickened nearly 700 people and may have been responsible for nine deaths. The peanut industry supports some 50,000 jobs in Georgia.
Today the head of the Georgia Peanut Commission told members of Congress the recent salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia peanut plant could cost the industry 1 Billion dollars. A salmonella outbreak at plants operated by the now bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America prompted one of the largest recalls in history. The company shipped its peanut butter and paste to industrial producers who used it in products ranging from ice cream to dog food. More than 680 people were sickened and as many as nine may have died. The peanut commission's Don Koehler says peanut farmers are having to cut their acreage by a-third, but he says the true cost won't be know until the scare is over.
Tight state budgets have led some of the biggest farm states to leave dozens of food inspection jobs vacant at a time when hundreds have been sickened by a nationwide salmonella outbreak tied to a filthy peanut processing plant. Georgia, the site of the plant, has about 60 inspectors for some 16,000 sites, while budget cuts have forced the state agriculture department to keep 15 inspector positions vacant. California, Texas and Florida are among other states facing the same problems while food experts say the federal government relies increasingly on states to monitor the nation's food supply.
"You can only shift the pawns on the table so many times before the game catches up with you," Georgia deputy Agriculture Commissioner Oscar Garrison told legislators earlier this month while asking for more money to hire inspectors.
The salmonella outbreak linked to Peanut Corp. of America has sickened hundreds, may have caused nine deaths and prompted one of the largest food recalls in the nation's history. Federal investigators have launched a criminal investigation, and Virginia-based Peanut Corp. faces mounting lawsuits and a bankruptcy filing. Food safety experts warn each loss of an inspector increases the possibility that food problems could elude detection. In the Georgia salmonella case, a state inspector found only minor problems when she probed the Blakely plant in October for less than two hours; less than three months later federal agents found roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other problems. Almost every state legislature in the country is staring down budget deficits and scraping funds for schools, roads and other public safety areas, like prisons and police. Food safety is a tough sell.
"It's getting pretty dire out there," said Doug Farquhar, an analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "With the salmonella scare, you'd think that now would be the time they'd say we need to invest in food safety. But the opposite is going on."
The belt-tightening comes at an inconvenient time.
The federal government increasingly relies on food safety inspections performed by states, where budgets for inspections have remained stagnant and overburdened officials have less training than their federal counterparts.
For officials in Georgia, the deadly outbreak has led to some soul searching. Legislators have floated proposals to deputize county health officials so they can quickly pursue food safety tips. And Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said his department will focus more on food safety inspections and less on other duties, such as monitoring out-of-date foods. Leading lawmakers say they hope to boost inspections, despite budget cuts.
Inspectors are "referees of the food game," said Joseph Hotchkiss, a food science professor at Cornell University who once worked for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "There's no way for us as individuals to know much about our food — how it's manufactured and prepared — without these people we hire. And with fewer of those people, that could in general result in an increased risk."
(AP)
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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)
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The owner of a peanut company blamed for a salmonella outbreak has appeared before a House subcommittee, but is refusing to testify. Lawmakers ordered Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell to appear at the hearing Wednesday.
He showed up, but refused to answer questions, invoking his constitutional right not to incriminate himself.
Earlier, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the company's internal correspondence showing that Parnell was ordering tainted products to be sold even after confirmation of salmonella. Parnell complains in e-mails about losing money and says he's frustrated by the delay in shipping products.
The salmonella outbreak has resulted in 600 illnesses and is now linked to nine deaths across the country. A federal criminal investigation is under way.
Internal e-mails indicate the owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella.
The company e-mails obtained by a House committee show Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales.
Parnell was ordered to appear before Congress today to discuss the outbreak that has led to 600 illnesses and eight deaths blamed on his Georgia plant. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, revealed the internal correspondence from the company during a House Energy and Commerce hearing.
(AP)
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Health officials in Texas say lab tests show there may have been salmonella at a shuttered Texas plant operated by the peanut company linked to a national outbreak. Texas health officials say the Peanut Corp. of America temporarily closed its plant in Plainview, Texas. Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Ga. plant is blamed for a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 600 people and may have caused at least eight deaths.
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.
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.
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)
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Federal inspectors found that a Georgia peanut plant now at the center of a salmonella outbreak exposed some of its equipment to insecticides in 2001. In a report based on that visit nearly eight years ago, inspectors said that workers at the Peanut Corp. of America's plant used an insecticide fogger not suitable for food areas and didn't wash its equipment. Those findings in 2001 are similar to problems discovered last month after the company shipped salmonella-tainted peanuts and peanut butter linked to at least eight deaths and 575 illnesses in 43 states.
Kellogg’s Keebler Cookies and Special K Bars are now on the recall list. They’re part of the growing scope of a national salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia peanut butter plant.
The Keebler cookies included are Soft Batch Homestyle Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies in 2.5 ounce packages with a “Best If Used Before" date before June 30. The cookies have UPC codes 3010032708 and 3010037899.
The Special K Protein Meal Bar recall includes only the Honey Almond flavor in six and eight count packages with a best if used before date before Feb. 1, 2010. No other Special K bars are part of the recall. The bars have UPC codes 3800039778, 3800039935 and 3800039931.
The cookies and bars don’t contain any peanut ingredients from the Peanut Corporation of American under investigation, but they were produced on the same line as products that do.
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The nationwide salmonella scare and recall of hundreds of peanut butter products has now drawn comments from the White House. President Obama says he promises a full review of the Food and Drug Administration amid the outbreak linked to the Blakely, Georgia peanut processing plant.
Obama says the FDA has not been able to catch problems as quickly as he would like. On Friday, the FDA requested a federal investigation into Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America. The Blakely-plant has been closed with its workers laid-off. The salmonella-outbreak has sickened more than 500 people nationwide, possibly leading to eight deaths. More than 400 products have been recalled.
Salmonella contaminated peanut butter may have entered the National School Lunch Program.
The US department of Agriculture says schools in California, Idaho and Minnesota received products on the rapidly expanding recall list.
Federal officials have sourced the salmonella outbreak to the peanut corporation of America in Blakely. It’s now under federal Criminal investigation because officials say company records show the plant knew of the potential problem last year. Peanut butter tested positive for salmonella at least 12 times in 2007, but was distributed after it was retested and cleared.
The USDA believes most of the recalled food has been consumed.
Federal investigators are concerned salmonella could be in yet more peanut products. The company at the center of the outbreak is expanding it's recall to include all peanut products made at it's Blakely, Ga., facilities since January of 2007.
Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America issued the recall after it was revealed the company found salmonella in it's own testing and did not report it. The Food and Drug Administration also alleges PCA knowingly sold tainted product.
It's not yet clear what brands used PCA peanuts.
The FDA's Stephen Sudlof said on a conference call that his agency is working with various companies to aid in the recall:
"These additional products are being recalled because there is concern of potential salmonella contamination including contamination with salmonella strains not associated with the current outbreak."
Cases of salmonella poisoning have been dropping off, according to federal scientists. Over five hundred have been sickened, and eight people are believed to have died from the salmonella contamination.
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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.
State Agriculture reports show the Blakely peanut butter plant at the center of a salmonella investigation has a history of sanitation problems. Records indicate the southwest Georgia processing plant had been cited for cleanliness issues in 2006 and ’07. Inspection reports from last year showed similar and other problems. And the now-closed plant during two routine inspections last year showed no indications of samples having been taken for salmonella testing. The salmonella outbreak has sickened 500 people and been linked to seven deaths. More than 125 products have been recalled nationwide.
The Ohio Department of Health announced Friday that four deaths have been reported among the 67 cases and 19 people have been hospitalized.
Sixty-seven cases of salmonella poisoning have been reported in Ohio, the most in any state during a nationwide outbreak linked to peanut butter products.
Ohio has now surpassed California in the number of cases reported.
There are six reported food poisoning cases in Georgia so far, but no deaths.
As the recall of salmonella-tainted peanut butter products widens, a Washington state lawyer is now calling on the Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America to pay funeral costs for several of those who died from food poisoning.
PCA officials say they’re laying off nearly all of the workers at the Blakely facility, and will only keep several managers on duty.
Local officials say 40 to 50 people are employed at the plant.
"As of 9PM EDT, Wednesday, January 22, 2009, 491 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (10), Arkansas (4), California (62), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Georgia (6), Hawaii (3), Idaho (11), Illinois (6), Indiana (4), Iowa (2), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (8), Massachusetts (42), Michigan (25), Minnesota (35), Missouri (9), Mississippi (3), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (19), New York (18), Nevada (5), North Carolina (6), North Dakota (10), Ohio (67), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (14), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (2), Tennessee (9), Texas (6), Utah (5), Vermont (4), Virginia (20), Washington (13), West Virginia (2), Wisconsin (3), and Wyoming (2). Additionally, one ill person was reported from Canada."
As the salmonella recall of products containing peanut butter continues to expand, a Washington state lawyer is calling on the company with Georgia operations to pay funeral costs for the six people believed to have died from the outbreak.
That comes as Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America announced it's laying off the majority of it's workforce.
As the salmonella recall of products containing peanut butter continues to expand, a Washington state lawyer is calling on the company with Georgia operations to pay funeral costs for the six people believed to have died from the outbreak.
That comes as Virginia based Peanut Corporation of America announced it's laying off the majority of it's workforce.
Bill Marler filed suit against PCA. The Seattle based lawyer represents the family of a person believed to have died as a result of consuming salmonella laced products processed at the Georgia's company's plant. In addition to asking PCA to cover hospital and funeral costs for those sickened by the outbreak, Marler also wants to investigate claims crack in the peanut processing machinery led to the salmonella contamination.
"We'll be asking the court to allow us entry into the facility so we can have our experts doing our own investigation as to why this outbreak occurred."
State and Federal health officials are currently investigating the cause of the outbreak.
Over 180 products, from snack crackers to protein bars, have been recalled.
Marler's entry into the case signals the large size and scope of this outbreak. He specializes in class action food borne illness cases, and litigated the 2006 E. Coli outbreak in spinach. California farming company executives literally cursed his name during that outbreak, which crippled the California agricultural industry. Marler says there are similarities in the two cases.
"Death cases in spinach were four, this one six. Yet, the other people who become ill, even though the numbers are bigger, the severity of the illnesses for salmonella tend to be substantially less, fortunately."
Marler has negotiated similar settlements for millions of dollars.
The potential cost, and current investigation, might be one reason PCA laid off a majority of it's workforce at the Blakely plant. Workers showed up to the plant yesterday to locked doors. It was only today the company president announced through a statement just three managers would remain on staff to aid the investigation. It's unclear exactly how many workers were let go, although the plant employs between 45-50 people, according to the local chamber of commerce.
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.
