AP Exclusive: Peanuts tainted with metal fragments
Source of Article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iH_omeaDBaB1UKxFZ4QGmvPKuuQQD961KHDO0 WASHINGTON (AP) — The government acknowledged Friday that a shipment of
peanuts from the plant linked to a salmonella outbreak contained a
"filthy, putrid or decomposed substance" later identified as metal
fragments. The shipment was returned to the The rejected shipment — coming across a bridge between The FDA said Friday that the shipment of chopped peanuts from Peanut Corp.
of America in Blakely, Ga., was eventually destroyed, after back-and-forth
efforts between the FDA and Peanut Corp. broke down and the FDA rejected as
"unacceptable" findings by a private lab hired by Peanut Corp. to analyze
its peanuts. "The shipment was refused by FDA for filth," FDA spokeswoman
Stephanie Kwisnek wrote in an e-mail to The
Associated Press. "The importer requested to destroy the product."
Another FDA spokesman, "The FDA did everything appropriately in handling the activities
associated with this shipment," Kwisnek said. The FDA's explanation Friday raises new questions about the adequacy of
food-safety tests arranged by Peanut Corp. of its own products. The FDA said
it refused to accept the private lab analysis because of problems with the
size of the sample tested, lack of information about whether experienced and
trained workers conducted the test, and questions about whether the test
could have detected certain types of metals. The FDA, citing internal company documents, said Peanut Corp. had hired a
lab that conducted at least 12 positive tests for salmonella between 2007 and
2008 at its The chopped peanuts in the export case were prevented by the FDA from
being allowed back into the Peanut Corp. didn't immediately respond to AP's request for comment.
Federal inspectors previously reported they found roaches, mold, a leaking
roof and other sanitation issues at the company's processing plant in
Blakely. Members of Congress noted that the timing of the discovery of the
adulterated peanuts came before the first clear signs of the salmonella
outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people in the "The FDA failing to follow up after this incident, does that mean
that products that are not good enough for a foreign country are still good
enough for the Harkin plans hearings on the outbreak and has proposed an overhaul of the
nation's food inspection network. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., announced oversight
hearings will begin Feb. 11. The head of the House appropriations panel that oversees FDA funding, Rep.
Rosa DeLauro, called the discovery of the bad shipment "a perfect
example of the patchwork system." "Why was it able to get exported in the first place?" asked
DeLauro, D-Conn. "That also begs the question, how many contaminated
products are getting through our borders every single day? If the FDA
discovered that there was an issue with this product inspection, why didn't
they follow up on it? Why didn't they take a closer look at this
facility?" DeLauro said she wants the Justice Department to investigate the
salmonella outbreak and is pressing for major changes in food safety
oversight. The government recorded the peanuts' seizure in the FDA's Oasis system,
designed to prevent shipments into the The seizure of the peanuts is significant because it came before the
salmonella outbreak, said Caroline Smith DeWaal,
director of the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public
Interest in "It strikes me that if FDA was paying attention to this information,
that they might have gone and done an inspection of the plant in September
instead of waiting until after the products were associated with a major
outbreak," she said. DeWaal said she thinks
"the question for the agency is how did they use
it when it happened." The incident was among nearly 1,400 around the country in September in
which the FDA refused to allow shipments into or back into the The rejected peanut shipment was stopped at a border crossing, apparently
in Associated Press writer
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report. |
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