Peanut Corporation of America
This company is the one responsible for the Salmonella outbreak and the huge Peanut recalls.
We already know that they had
problems two years ago, now it seems that they had problems with their products being exported to Canada.
From
Yahoo News/Associated Press:
AP Exclusive: Peanuts tainted with metal fragments
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 U.S. in April, months earlier than reflected in a federal tracking database.
The rejected shipment � coming across a bridge between New York and Canada � was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never tested by federal inspectors, according to government records. The incident took place in mid-September, the records show, weeks before the earliest signs of the outbreak.
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, George Strait, said later Friday that metal fragments were found in the shipment.
"The FDA did everything appropriately in handling the activities associated with this shipment," Kwisnek said.
A bit more:
The chopped peanuts in the export case were prevented by the FDA from being allowed back into the United States because the peanuts contained an unspecified "filthy, putrid or decomposed substance, or is otherwise unfit for food," according to the FDA's report of the incident.
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.
Yikes -- we rag on the Chinese about their problems with tainted food.
We have the same problem right at home...
Posted by DaveH at January 30, 2009 7:02 PM