News tagged with 'PCA'

The FDA is poised to get new regulatory authority and this auditor report is providing the fuel. It shows that more than half of food facilities have gone five years or more without an inspection and 5,000 in the U.S. die annually from contaminated food.

Public perception and a failure of state and federal regulators has shaken up the lucrative peanut industry at a time when sales should be soaring. The nationwide salmonella outbreak continues but with a moderate decline. Meanwhile the source of the outbreak, PCA has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

What did Stewart Parnell know about salmonella contamination at his Georgia peanut plant, and when did he know it? That was the question lawmakers wanted answered after incriminating internal company e-mails surfaced. But both Parnell and his plant manager refused to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment right.  

There has been a shakeup in the new Department of Agriculture Peanut Standards Board.  Stewart Parnell of Peanut Corporation of America was asked to leave.  The board advises the federal government on the handling standards for peanuts grown and marketed domestically as well as imported.  His company is at the center of a nationwide recall due to salmonella.

The family of a 20-month-old boy who contracted salmonella poisoning after eating peanut butter crackers, will file one of the first product liability lawsuits against Peanut Corporation of America.  More are certain to follow in a class-action in Georgia, where the Blakely plant is located. 

Both the state of Georiga and the Department of Justice are looking at filing criminal charges against  Peanut Corporation of America. An inspection report should have raised a red flag that the company had extensive salmonella contamination that was not contained.