Dead rodents, bird feathers prompt US peanut recallThe discovery of dead rodents and bird feathers in a Plainview, Texas plant of the Peanut Corporation of America, already implicated in a deadly salmonella outbreak, prompted a recall of all its products, officials said. "The Texas Department of State Health Services today ordered Peanut Corporation of America to recall all products ever shipped from its Plainview plant," the southern US state's health department said in a statement Thursday. "The order was issued after dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers were discovered yesterday in a crawl space crawl·space or crawl space n. A low or narrow space, such as one beneath the upper or lower story of a building, that gives workers access to plumbing or wiring equipment. Noun 1. above a production area during an in-depth DSHS inspection," it said. "The inspection also found that the plant?s air handling system was not completely sealed and was pulling debris from the infested in·fest tr.v. in·fest·ed, in·fest·ing, in·fests 1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: crawl space into production areas of the plant resulting in the adulteration Mixing something impure with something genuine, or an inferior article with a superior one of the same kind. Adulteration usually refers to mixing other matter of an inferior and sometimes harmful quality with food or drink intended to be sold. of exposed food products," the department warned, noting it was shutting down the plant, which has been in operation since March 2005. The company's facility in Blakely, Georgia has been blamed for a widespread food poisoning outbreak knowingly shipped contaminated peanut butter and had mold growing on its ceilings and walls. The salmonella outbreak took place between September 1 and January 9, with 501 people infected in 43 states and one more person reported ill in Canada, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation ), which is collaborating with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. ) on the investigation. The CDC said salmonella infection may have contributed to eight deaths. The FDA determined that people were infected or died after eating food products containing peanut butter produced by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA (tool, programming) PCA - A dynamic analyser from DEC giving information on run-time performance and code use. ) in Blakely, Georgia. "PCA distributed potentially contaminated product to more than 70 consignee consignee n. a person or business holding another's goods for sale or for delivery to a designated agent. (See: consign) CONSIGNEE, contracts. One to whom a consignment is made. 2. firms, for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different products, such as cookies, crackers, cereal, candy and ice cream," the FDA said on its website. An FDA inspection report released Wednesday found 12 instances between June 2007 and September 2008 where the firm's own testing revealed that its products were contaminated by salmonella and the PCA nonetheless shipped the product. The peanut products were distributed to US companies as well as others in Canada, Haiti, South Korea and Trinidad. 
|
|
|||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion