peanuts 9 articles

A federal judge in Albany, Ga., sentenced two additional Peanut Corporation of America managers to prison Thursday for their roles in a nationwide 2009 outbreak of Salmonella poisoning linked to contaminated peanut products. Samuel Lightsey, 50, a former operations manager at PCA’s Blakely, Ga., plant was sentenced to 36 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Daniel Kilgore, 46, a former operations manager at the same plant, was sentenced to 72 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. The sentences followed the Sept. 21 sentencing of PCA owner and chief Stewart Parnell, 61, ... Read More

“Just ship it.” These three words have come to haunt former Peanut Corporation of America (PCA)owner Stewart Parnell since he sent them in an email to a plant manager in March 2007 concerning tainted peanut products. U.S. prosecuting attorneys brought this statement to light in the opening statements of brothers Stewart and Michael Parnell’s trial concerning the 2009 outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to their company’s tainted products. In an unprecedented conviction, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against two former officials and one broker for the Peanut Corporation of America for the unlawful sale of salmonella-tainted peanuts and peanut ... Read More

The Peanut Corporation of America knowingly distributed salmonella contaminated peanuts to manufacturers and presented faked documents to back up those false claims, in what has become one of the largest salmonella outbreaks in U.S. history, according to court testimony. The trial has begun for three executives of the peanut producer over the 2009 outbreak that killed nine people and sickened at least 700 others. Peanut Corporation of America went bankrupt in 2009 after it was identified as the source of the outbreak. Then-plant manager Sammy Lightsey testified against plant owner Stewart Parnell, saying he discovered that the company was shipping peanuts on ... Read More

The nationwide recall involving peanut products made by New Mexico-based Sunland, Inc. was expanded this week to include two products made by Rich Products Corporation (“Rich’s”): Jon Donaire® brand Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake and TCBY® Peanut Buttery Fudge Deep Dish Frozen Yogurt Pie. “Rich’s Quality Assurance Team has determined that the two products contain ingredients sourced from a supplier using Sunland, Inc. peanuts in the production of certain lots of the products and have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella,” the company said in a statement. “Specifically, the peanut butter ribbon provided by our supplier contains peanuts sourced ... Read More

Neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor state health agencies require food manufacturers to test the safety of their products before they enter the market. Inspectors periodically visit the factories where food is processed to make sure their operations are up to code, but as we have seen in the recent past, even those rules can be insufficient and lax. Obviously, large food manufacturers have a reputation to uphold, so it’s not surprising that many of them perform optional, randomized testing of their products. Kraft performed such tests on its Back to Nature trail mix, which is how it ... Read More

Peanut Corporation of America has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia following the recall of peanut products produced in the company’s Blakely, Georgia, and Plainview, Texas, facilities. “It’s regrettable, but it’s inevitable with the events of last month,” Andrew S. Goldstein, the bankruptcy attorney who filed the petition, told the Associated Press. Investigators have traced the national salmonella outbreak to peanuts produced by the Peanut Corp. in its Blakely, Georgia, factory. They estimate that the contaminated peanut butter has sickened 630 people and caused the deaths of 9. According to the AP, the board “had ... Read More

has shut its Plainview, Texas, plant as federal and state officials continue their investigations into the questionable practices that caused a national salmonella outbreak, spurred one of the country’s largest food recalls in history, killed 8 people, and sickened hundreds more. The Peanut Corp. voluntarily shut down its Texas operations after lab tests indicated the presence of salmonella bacteria in some sample products, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The Texas plant, operated as Plainview Peanut Company, LLC, produces peanut meal, granulated peanuts, and dry roasted peanuts. None of the possibly contaminated products appear to have reached ... Read More

Federal officials have been reporting that that the Peanut Corporation of America had salmonella-contaminated peanut butter retested in an apparent effort to obtain negative results. however, this week the Food and Drug Administration corrected its report, saying that in some cases the peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, didn’t wait for results of the second tests before sending shipments of peanut butter. In other cases, independent labs hired by the Peanut Corp. found salmonella in some peanut butter, but the company shipped it out anyway, without retesting. These latest findings indicate that the Peanut Corporation was either grossly negligent or, ... Read More

A shipment of chopped peanuts from Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, Georgia, facility was rejected in Canada because it was deemed “filthy and putrid,” officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.  The shipment was refused by the importer in Canada in April 2008. The importer requested that it be destroyed. Tests of the refused shipment later showed that the chopped peanuts contained metal fragments. The shipment was not destroyed until November 17, more than 7 months after it was rejected, because the Peanut Corporation tried to clean it up. “The shipment was rejected from Canada and imported back to the ... Read More