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Peanut
Corp. Salmonella Toll Mounts Source of Article: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/5038 Date Published: Thursday, March 12th, 2009 Salmonella-tainted
peanut products continue to sicken people across the country. According
to the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC), the number of ill in the Peanut Corp. of
America (PCA) outbreak has grown to 683. Illnesses are being reported in 46
states, and at lease one person in Canada has also become sick. The death
toll from the salmonella outbreak stands at nine. Half
of those infected are under age 16, while more than one in four cases is
under age 5. Most of the reported illnesses have been linked to two brands of
peanut butter crackers — Kellogg’s Austin and Keebler brand peanut butter
crackers. The
most recent illnesses occurred just weeks ago, with the last reported on Feb.
13, the CDC said. This indicates that foods made with salmonella-contaminated
PCA ingredients are still in circulation. As such, the CDC is warning
consumers to check their homes for potentially dangerous products. The
list of recalled foods made with PCA products has also grown, and has now
surpassed 3,500. Products that carry a salmonella risk continue to be
recalled on a daily basis. A full list of recalled products is being
maintained by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). There
is also more evidence emerging that oversight of the PCA Georgia plant at the
center of the outbreak had been lax, at best. According to the Atlanta
Constitution Journal, the Blakely, Georgia facility was inspected by the
state health department on 184 occasions since 2006. But 114 of those
inspections lasted less than two hours. Not surprisingly, none of these
inspections found evidence of mold, cockroaches and salmonella contamination
that was uncovered by the FDA when it investigated the plant in January. As
we’ve previously reported, a second PCA plant in Texas - which was closed
because of deplorable conditions last month - had never been properly
licensed. Yet, a state inspector who visited the plant on three occasions
since 2005 had actually indicated in his reports that the facility was
licensed correctly. Finally,
Reuters is reporting that during testimony yesterday before a subcommittee of
the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, a witness told lawmakers that the
PCA debacle could cost the peanut industry as much as $1 billion. “We
are dealing with a situation of historic proportions,” said Don Koehler,
executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission. “Rebuilding in the
peanut industry cannot fully begin until the outbreak is over and the recall
is complete.” Another
witness, Diane Austin, vice president of Perry’s Ice Cream, told the
subcommittee that her family-run operation is still trying to determine the
cost of its PCA-related recalls, Reuters said. “We
do not yet have a complete accounting of the financial losses that Perry’s
will face,” said Austin. “It will surely be in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars, if not more.” Austin
said Perry’s Ice Cream has so far had to recall 170 tons of product and has
spent 2,100 hours on the recall, Reuters said. |
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