Latest food recall one of largest ever

WASHINGTON — In one of the largest food recalls in history, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday asked retailers, manufacturers and consumers to throw out every product made in the past two years from peanuts processed by a Georgia plant at the heart of a deadly nationwide outbreak of salmonella.

The action came after federal officials discovered this month that the company, Peanut Corp. of America, knowingly shipped products contaminated with salmonella 12 times in 2007 and 2008, prompting a congresswoman to call Wednesday for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Michael Rogers of the FDA said the company violated good manufacturing practices by selling peanut products that had tested positive for salmonella bacteria. He said the company turned over records of its inspections only after the FDA invoked special authority given to it by Congress in 2002 under laws to prevent bioterrorism.

Rogers would not say whether the company would face sanctions. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Peanut Corp., based in Lynchburg, Va., has said the company complied with all requests by regulators from "day one."

The company's Blakely, Ga., plant produces peanut butter, paste, meal and granules used in products including ice cream, snack crackers and dog biscuits.

Since early January, when federal investigators traced the salmonella contamination to the plant, more than 400 products made with peanut butter or paste from the facility were recalled. That represented products made with peanut ingredients handled by the plant since July 1.

Wednesday's move expanded the recall to all peanut products that came out of the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. Federal officials said they do not know how many consumer products will be affected.

"We don't have a good idea right now in terms of how much of that product is still out there; it may have largely been consumed," said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Federal officials found four strains of Salmonella enterica at the plant, raising questions about whether products besides peanut butter and paste may have been contaminated.

The outbreak of salmonella illness, which began in late summer and continues, has been linked to eight deaths. In all, about 500 people in 43 states, including at least 13 in Washington, and Canada have become ill. About 22 percent were hospitalized, and about half affected are children.

The 13 Washington cases ranged in age from younger than 10 to in their 50s and all recovered, said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the Washington state Department of Health.

Federal health officials said they will work with companies supplied by Peanut Corp. to continually update a recall list available on the FDA's Web site.

Major-label peanut butter is not suspected to be contaminated with salmonella and is considered safe to eat, according to the FDA.

Peanut Corp., which also has plants in Virginia and Texas, is a relatively small company, but the contamination's impact is large because the peanuts the plant processes are turned into hundreds, if not thousands, of food products.

Once federal investigators traced the current outbreak to the Blakely plant, they made 14 visits this month and documented unsanitary conditions, poor practices and structural problems that invited bacterial contamination.

The inspection reports, made public Wednesday by the FDA, detail mold growing on a ceiling, rainwater leaking into the production area from skylights, gaps in the building where rodents could enter, dead roaches and inadequate ventilation, among other defects.

The last time the FDA inspected the plant was in 2001, officials said Wednesday.

The Peanut Corp. recall is the latest in a series of increasingly severe food-contamination scares that have angered legislators on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., called Wednesday for the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation. And Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., introduced a bill that would increase resources and regulatory authority for the FDA. "The Food and Drug Administration can't and doesn't do its job, and American lives are at risk," he said.

Information from The Seattle Times archive is included in this report. Information from The New York Times is also included in this report.