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Federal Criminal Investigation of Salmonella Outbreak

By PritzkerLaw

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration have launched a joint criminal investigation into the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that federal health officials have said was caused by the Blakely, Georgia, processing plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).

The probe was announced by the FDA's Dr. Stephen Sundlof in a conference call Friday with reporters. Earlier in the week, FDA officials said there were 12 recorded instances of PCA knowlingly shipping product to customers after it tested positive for Salmonella. The company had the product retested before shipping, the FDA has said.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported Friday that PCA and the FDA fought last year over a shipment of chopped peanuts that contained a "filthy, putrid or decomposed substance'' and was returned to the U.S. from Canada. The chopped peanuts were made at PCA's processing plant in Blakely.

The incident occurred in April 2008. FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said the shipment was rejected as an import by the FDA for filth. The FDA rejected as "unacceptable'' the findings by a private lab that PCA hired to win the release of the product. The company later agreed to have the chopped peanuts destroyed.

The Associated Press story said the FDA never tested the product itself.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has set Feb. 11 in Washington for a public hearing on the Salmonella outbreak. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the early list of invited speakers includes Stewart Parnell, president and owner of PCA, and Frank Torti, acting commission of the FDA.

According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, the current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak has sickened 529 persons in 43 states. A total of 116 patients were reported hospitalized and the infections may have contributed to eight deaths, including three in Minnesota.

Two of the Minnesota cases are being handled by leading food safety attorney Fred Pritzker of Minneapolis. Pritzker early this week filed the first Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, who died Dec. 21 after eating contaminated peanut butter from the Georgia plant.

Pritzker has said a second lawsuit will be filed on behalf of the family of Doris Flatgard, 87. Both women had been living in Good Samaritan nursing homes in Brainerd.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).