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Peanut Corporation Ignored Texas Recall Order

By PritzkerLaw

Peanut Corporation of America apparently ignored an order from theTexas Department of State Health Services to recall all the products ever made at its plant in Plainview, Texas.

That's what the state agency said in a press release Friday. Health officials in that state are stepping in to execute the product recall on their own. The action will involve going through the company's customer lists and notifying those entities of the recall.

The recall was ordered Feb. 12, coinciding roughly with the company's decision to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy/liquidation and go out of business. The press release said health officials never got a response from the company regarding the recall.

David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services, is notifying PCA Chief Executive Officer Parnell Stewart that the agency will seek payment from the company for the cost of doing the recall.

PCA has been blamed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a 44-state outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium that has sickened more than 654 people and killed nine. PCA's plant in Blakely, Georgia, shipped peanut butter and other peanut products that contained the bacteria.

Fred Pritzker, founder and president of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, has filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA and King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA's peanut butter. PritzkerOlsen represents peanut butter Salmonella clients from around the country, including the families of three women who died in the outbreak.

To contact our firm, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete a free case consultation form.  

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on February 21, 2009 (boomark / email).