FDA Seizes Peanut Product after Company Refuses a Voluntary Recall

Why would a business whose peanut products are at risk for Salmonella contamination refuse the FDA’s request for a recall? This is a question that we might ask Westco Fruit and Nut Co., Inc., of New Jersey.

Back in March, Westco Fruit and Nut refused to recall its products that contained peanuts from the Peanut Corporation of America, peanuts that were involved in a widely publicized Salmonella outbreak. On April 8, the FDA served the company a warrant so that officials could attain distribution records. On April 27, U.S. Marshals on behalf of the FDA seized from Westco $34,500 worth of potentially contaminated PCA peanut products.

Basic logic tells us that the longer a contaminated product is available to consumers, the greater the risk that more people will get sick. So if you’re a company that distributes peanuts, and you learn that your product may be tainted with a dangerous food borne pathogen, why wait to remove your wares from the market? Another classic case of “what were they thinking?”