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Peanut Corporation of America has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia following the recall of peanut products produced in the company’s Blakely, Georgia, and Plainview, Texas, facilities.
Peanut Corporation of America has shut its Plainview, Texas, plant as federal and state officials continue their investigations into the questionable practices that caused a national salmonella outbreak, spurred one of the country’s largest food recalls in history, killed 8 people, and sickened hundreds more. The Peanut Corp. voluntarily shut down its Texas operations after lab tests indicated the presence of salmonella bacteria in some sample products, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Federal officials have been reporting that that the Peanut Corporation of America had salmonella-contaminated peanut butter retested in an apparent effort to obtain negative results. however, this week the Food and Drug Administration corrected its report, saying that in some cases the peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, didn’t wait for results of the second tests before sending shipments of peanut butter. In other cases, independent labs hired by the Peanut Corp. found salmonella in some peanut butter, but the company shipped it out anyway, without retesting.
Most of the news concerning the massive peanut butter recall has focused on the manufacturing facility in Blakely, Georgia where Peanut Corporation of America produced the contaminated peanut butter that sickened so many people. Now Peanut Corporation’s other factory in Plainview, Texas, is in the spotlight because it operated unlicensed and uninspected for nearly four years.
Seven-year-old Christopher Meunier spent nearly a week in the hospital late last year after eating some peanut butter crackers contaminated with salmonella. The boy’s parents, Gabrielle and Daryl Meunier of Burlington, Vermont, are now suing the Peanut Corporation of America for an undisclosed amount of money.
A shipment of chopped peanuts from Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, Georgia, facility was rejected in Canada because it was deemed “filthy and putrid,” officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
Representative Henry Waxman, D-Cal. and Representative Bart Stupak, D-MI announced on Thursday that congress will hold the first public hearing on the salmonella outbreak that has been traced to Peanut Corporation of America’s peanut butter products.
We reported earlier that the Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, Georgia plant knowingly shipped out a dozen batches of peanut products that had tested positive for salmonella. As the federal government’s investigation continues, the likelihood that company mangers will face criminal charges appears to grow.
Officials from the Food and Drug Administration discovered that the Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella bacteria while conducting internal tests several times in 2007 and 2008 but knowingly sold its products anyway. The contaminated peanut butter products were shipped 12 times in those two years, according to company documents examined by the FDA.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, 485 people in 43 states and Canada have been sickened by an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium, which has been traced to products containing contaminated peanut butter originating from the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). Authorities also believe the contaminated peanut butter has lead to about 100 hospitalizations and may be responsible for six deaths.
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