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Apr 10, 2009 02:30 PM | 2
The company whose salmonella-tainted peanut products made 691 people sick and may have killed nine others has been fined $14.6 million.
The Texas Department of State Health Services yesterday fined Plainview Peanut Corp. — a plant owned by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), the company at the center of the salmonella outbreak — for what the agency described as unsanitary conditions and contamination of its goods, as well as illnesses and operating for nearly four years without a food manufacturer’s license from the state. State health inspectors in February discovered dead rodents, waste and bird feathers in a crawl space above the plant's production area. PCA filed for bankruptcy a day after the stomach-turning findings were announced.
Yesterday's fine is the biggest the agency has ever levied, state health department spokesperson Doug McBride told the Associated Press. "We felt the assessment of the administrative fines needed to be done regardless of financial situations," he told the AP. "If there is a violation, the penalties need to be assessed, period."
PCA attorney Andy Goldstein didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment today.
Federal health officials reported yesterday that the incidence of foodborne illnesses, including salmonella, has flattened since 2004. Check out our in-depth report on the salmonella outbreak to learn more. Or, for a lighter take, the satirical pub The Onion has been inspired by the outbreak, joking recently that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has been blasted for its allegedly lax regulation, has "approved" salmonella. "We've been waiting for the federal go-ahead to produce salmonella for decades now," a supposed condiments manufacturer "tells" the newspaper. "In fact, we have an entire line of lukewarm, sun-soaked, and partially turned mayonnaises that we just know Americans will love."
Image of peanuts/Benedikt.Seidl via Wikimedia Commons
Tags:
peanut butter,
FDA,
salmonella
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2 Comments
Add CommentThe head of PCA, and the others that made the decision to knowingly sell tainted products, should go to jail.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Texas Department of State Health Services is too kind and gentle. How many people must die before this kind of activity is considered a terrorist act and these people are charged with murder? Every country that hates America, and that's 90-99% of the world, knows that we love our peanut products and our children and pets are the ones who eat the most peanut butter and peanut products. Just because these people look American, does not mean that they are. I am not trying to make anyone paranoid or target any groups of people or individual, but doesn't it seems a little strange that these incidents escalated after 911? What better place to hit a grossly obese people than in the gut?
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