Salmonella Warning: Peanut Butter

[turbo]

The owner and the plant manager both refused to testify to Congress today. This news article gives more detail regarding the content of their internal emails than has previously been disclosed. Clearly, their actions were criminal.

The House panel released e-mails obtained by its investigators showing Parnell ordered products identified with salmonella shipped and quoting his complaints that tests discovering the contaminated food were "costing us huge $$$$$$."
At one point, Parnell said his workers "desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money." In another exchange, he told his plant manager to "turn them loose" after products once deemed contaminated were cleared in a second test.
Parnell's response to a final lab test showing salmonella was about how much it would cost, and the impact lab testing was having on moving his products.
"We need to discuss this," he wrote in an Oct. 6 e-mail to Sammy Lightsey, his plant manager. "The time lapse, beside the cost is costing us huge $$$$$$ and causing obviously a huge lapse in time from the time we pick up peanuts until the time we can invoice."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_go_co/salmonella_outbreak;_ylt=AmBGh7A95VEvW062Li7wAg.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFoOW9uOXBsBHBvcwMxNgRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNwZWFudXRjb21wYW4-

 

[Astronuc]

Peanut Corp. of America files for bankruptcy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090213/ap_on_bi_ge/salmonella_outbreak_bankruptcy

ATLANTA – The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak has filed for bankruptcy.

The Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America filed Friday for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Lynchburg, Va. The company's attorney, Andrew Goldstein, says the filing was "regrettable" but inevitable.

The company said in the filing that its debt and assets both ranged between $1 million and $10 million.

The salmonella outbreak was traced to one of the company's plants in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold and a leaking roof. A second plant in Texas was shuttered this week. The outbreak has resulted in more than 500 illnesses, led to one of the nation's biggest recalls and may have caused as many as nine deaths.

. . . .

I guess they can't afford to keep the place clean.

 

[turbo]

The Texas plant had dead rodents, rodent excrement, and bird feathers in a filthy crawl space, and the plant's ventilation system was pulling air out of that space and exhausting it into the production area. Way to go, guys!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/12/peanut.butter.recall/