Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the Georgia peanut plant that has been linked to 8 salmonella-related deaths knowingly shipped tainted products 12 times within the past year.
Health officials were unaware of the problem as companies are currently not required by law to disclose internal product tests. However, inspections over the past few years uncovered serious sanitation concerns. The director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition could not say whether the company could face criminal charges. Officials investigating the plant discovered four different strains of salmonella at the facility. Currently, Salmonella typhimurium is the only strain involved in the nationwide outbreak.
Hundreds of products were recalled, 8 people died and possibly thousands of people (mostly children) were sickened in the aftermath of the now international salmonella outbreak. Now, we come to find that the whole thing was completely avoidable. Was it worth it, Peanut Corporation of America? Really?
For up-to-date listings of salmonella-related recalls, click here.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
