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)

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Salmonella Outbreak Highlights Inspector Shortage

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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Peanut Butter Now Included in Recall

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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Equipment Crack May be Cause of Salmonella Outbreak

Georgia officials are still trying to determine the cause of the salmonella outbreak that's been linked to six deaths and more than 150 product recalls.

A crack in a piece of equipment that processes peanuts in a plant in Blakely, Georgia might be the cause of the nationwide salmonella outbreak. That’s according to state agriculture officials.

Department of Agriculture spokesman Oscar Garrison says they will continue to work with the US Food and Drug Administration to find the exact cause.

“There are some environmental samples that were taken by FDA that have turned up some positives as well as a couple of product samples take by our department that have turned up some positive results as well for salmonella.”

While salmonella isn't normally expected to turn up in peanut butter, 486 people from 43 states have contracted the illness.

All of the products recalled so far use peanut butter or peanut paste from the plant in southwest Georgia. But officials say peanut butter on store shelves is safe because they don’t sell directly to consumers.

More Salmonella Deaths From Peanut Butter (Video)

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.

(Source: CDC)

"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."

(Source: CDC)

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.

Click here for more on this developing story.

(With John Sepulvado and the AP)

Water problems cause of salmonella outbreak

Moisture from a leaky roof and a faulty sprinkler caused a salmonella outbreak at a Georgia peanut butter plant, according to the company. 400 people nationwide got sick earlier this year from eating Con Agra’s peanut butter. The company says salmonella spread in the Sylvester plant – near Albany -- after a rainstorm caused the roof to leak and a faulty sprinkler went off twice. ConAgra says it thought the plant was thoroughly cleaned, but somehow salmonella made its way into the peanut butter before it was packaged. The company faces several class-action lawsuits.

Little Debbie Peanut Butter Crackers Recalled

"Peanut Proud:" Blakely City Hall. (Dave Bender/file)

Now it's some Little Debbie peanut butter crackers that are being recalled because there's a chance of salmonella contamination.

That's the word Sunday from McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tenn.

The voluntary recall covers all sizes of two kinds of sandwich crackers - Little Debbie peanut butter toasty crackers and Little Debbie peanut butter cheese crackers.

The company says no other Little Debbie products are involved in the recall. McKee says it acted because the crackers have the potential to be contaminated.

Federal health authorities on Saturday urged consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods that contain peanut butter until authorities can learn more about a deadly outbreak of salmonella contamination.

Federal food safety officials say 85 food companies have purchased peanut products from the Georgia facility under investigation in the latest salmonella outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration says 30 companies have been contacted and urged to test their products.

Officials are focusing on peanut paste, as well as peanut butter, produced at the Blakely, Ga., facility owned by Peanut Corp. of America.

"We urge consumers to postpone eating any products that may contain peanut butter until additional information becomes available," said Stephen Sundlof, head of the Food and Drug Administration's food safety center.

But most peanut butter sold in jars at supermarkets appears to be safe, Sundlof said.

Here's a list of products voluntarily recalled by the Kellogg Co. because they could be contaminated with salmonella from the Blakely peanut processing facility:

• Austin Quality Foods Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods Mega Stuffed Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods PB & J Cracker Sandwiches - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods Super Snack Pack Sandwich Crackers
• Austin Quality Foods Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin Quality Foods Reduced Fat Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
• Austin Quality Foods Reduced Fat Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
• Austin Quality Foods Cookie/Cracker Pack
• Austin Quality Foods Variety Pack
• Keebler Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Keebler Toast & PB'n J Flavored Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Keebler Toast & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies (2- and 3-ounce)
• Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies (2.5-ounce)

(AP)

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Peanut Problems Compound

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.

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.

CDC Says Little Progress In U.S. Food Safety

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says Americans did not suffer more food poisoning in 2008, despite high-profile cases like the peanut butter salmonella outbreak linked to a south Georgia plant. But a new CDC study also warns that Georgia and a handful of other states have made little—if any-progress in food safety over the past four years.

The study’s key statement is this: The U.S. has "reached a plateau in the prevention of food-borne disease." It calls for new efforts to make food safer from the farm to the table.

The CDC’s study looked at 10 states, including Georgia. It showed the number of food-borne infections declining over the past decade. But, by 2004 they leveled-off. And Georgia in particular has the second-highest rate of salmonella among the 10 states.

That’s due in part to the latest salmonella outbreak at a peanut plant in Blakely, which sickened nearly 700 people nationwide.

State lawmakers answered that alarm in the just-completed legislative session by overwhelmingly passing a bill to toughen food safety rules and regulations. State Republican Senator John Bulloch says the bill he co-sponsored is a good start:

"The tools that we put in place for the Dept of Agriculture is a great improvement over what they had before. Do the things need to be changed?...we don’t know. It may be that next year we need to come back as we see how these new changes have been implemented and what results they have, and maybe there are some other things that need to be changed."

Bulloch says changes already made within the state’s Agriculture Department include an additional five food inspectors in the field, with three of those positions newly-created by the Legislature.

But Bulloch also points out that Georgia should not be taking all the blame for failures in the inspection pipeline:

"At what point does the Food and Drug Administration…where’s their responsibilities? Have they done and have been doing a good job? And I’d say no, they need to change their rules and regulations."

Federal food safety officials say they’re using new tools in an aggressive approach toward reducing food-contamination.

Here in Georgia, Bulloch believes things will get better:

"I would say that going forward, the consuming public should have a higher level of confidence that the products that go to the grocery shelf would be from a Georgia-facility would be by far safer than it could have been in the past."

Senate Bill-80 toughening Georgia’s food safety rules and regulations, awaits Governor Sonny Perdue’s signature.

Reports Show Problems at Blakely Plant

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.

To see a copy of the reports, click here.

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.

Tomato warning excludes GA growers

An outbreak of Salmonella bacteria has stores pulling tomatoes from their shelves nationwide. Over one hundred people in the US have gotten sick with salmonella bacteria, and the Federal Drug Administration has narrowed the potential source down to three kinds of tomatoes: roma, plum and round tomatoes grown in several states. But Georgia is not one of them. Instead, Georgia is one of twenty states where tomatoes have been cleared.

However, many restaurants and grocery stores are pulling tomatoes from consumption no matter where they’re from. Charles Hall with the trade group, Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers, says paranoia is hurting Georgia’s tomato farmers.

“We’re in season as far as shipping out tomatoes and we’re seeing our sales reduce significantly because the concerns of stores about the tomatoes even though we’re shipping safe tomatoes.”

Hall says the paranoia should soon be over; the last case of salmonella was reported two weeks ago. Officials still warn consumers to check the origin of the tomatoes they eat.

Tomatoes grown in the following places are NOT part of the FDA recall:
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Georgia
Hawaii
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
New York
Nebraska
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
West Virginia
Belgium
Canada
Dominican Republic
Guatemala
Israel
Netherlands
Puerto Rico

Salmonella outbreak leads to changes

A nationwide salmonella outbreak that started at a Georgia food plant is prompting the Food and Drug Administration to make some changes. Today the FDA announced it will investigate facilities that make peanut butter and similar products more often. Sylvester-based Con Agra admits high moisture at its plant near Albany allowed salmonella to get into some of its peanut butter, sold under the brands Peter Pan and Great Value. More than 400 people around the country got sick from eating it. The FDA says peanut butter will likely rise on its list of “high-risk” foods.

Eighth Georgian sick with salmonella

Another Georgian has fallen ill will salmonella. That makes eight now sick with the bacteria that officials are tracing to contaminated tomatoes. Nationally the count is at least 229.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has advised Americans to avoid round, red tomatoes and Roma and plum tomatoes unless they’re on a list of growing regions cleared in the outbreak. Georgia’s on that list.

Salmonella symptoms include nausea, stomach cramping and fever.

Georgia tomato farmers hit hard by salmonella scare

(J. Bennet)

It's a 40-million dollar crop in Georgia, and now a recent salmonella scare has hit Georgia's farmers hard. Sales of tomatoes are down, and losses could total 8-million dollars.
And while Georgia tomatoes have been declared safe by the Food and Drug Administration, the media hype is still keeping customers away.
The FDA is telling consumers not to eat Roma, plum and red round tomatoes grown in California and some parts of Florida. Tomatoes from other states, including Georgia are safe.
Officials have expanded the search for salmonella to include Serrano peppers and cilantro often served with tomatoes in salsa.
Charles Hall is with the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Commission. He says the FDA is trying to protect consumers, but farmers are suffering.

"If it's not tomatoes we've got a lot of growers who have lost a lot of money because it was announced that it was tomatoes and consumers quit buying."

Sales of Georgia tomatoes are down around 70-percent. Many farmers are leaving them to rot in the fields. Farmers also face the dilemma of whether to even plant their fall tomato crops in the coming weeks.

State Ag Dept: Georgia jalapenos are safe

Samples of fresh Georgia-grown jalapenos and salsa tested over the past week came back negative for salmonella. The state Department of Agriculture announced the results late Friday afternoon. Samples came from six Georgia farms and a Watkinsville producer of salsa that uses Georgia jalapenos. In a department press release, Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said “I hope news of our test results will encourage grocery stores and restaurants to start placing orders for these products again”. The testing in Georgia came in response to a blanket warning from the U.S Food and Drug Administration to avoid all products containing jalapenos. One pepper from a farm in Mexico had earlier tested positive for a salmonella strain. Over the past several weeks, more than 12-hundred people had been sickened by a salmonella strain.

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)

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PCA Owner Refuses to Testify at Congressional Hearing

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.

(Associated Press)

Recalled Peanut Butter Sent to Schools Out-of-State

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.

(Associated Press)