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FDA Inspection of Texas Peanut Plant Released

By PritzkerLaw

An inspection report released this week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided greater detail of dirty and unsafe conditions at the Plainview, Texas, plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).

According to a copy of the report, here are several of the findings:

The plant's roof was leaking in at least six places, including in one area where rain could splatter and dirty a conveyor belt for peanuts. Eight dead mice were found. Mouse droppings were on counters and elsewhere and were too numerous to count in a cabinet under the sink in the plant's kitchen. The air duct systems were dirty and neglected to the point where rodents could use them as passageways to food processing equipment. Bins of contaminated peanut products from PCA's plant in Blakely, Georgia, were unsegregated and unmarked -- making it possible for someone to mistakenly ship the products to customers. What appeared to be a bird's nest was located high inside the plant. Various food production machinery had "appreciable buildup of peanut fines,'' peanut meal, peanut chunks, peanut paste or "some gooey other solidified.''

Federal officials in January linked PCA's plant in Georgia to the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that has sickened 677 people in 45 states and killed nine since early September 2008. PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, a national food safety law firm, represents the families of three of the people who died. The firm has filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA and King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA peanut butter.

After the Georgia plant was implicated and closed, the Texas plant also came under suspicion. The FDA and Texas Department of State Health Services each found the outbreak strain of Salmonella in products made at the Texas plant and the state ordered a recall of all products ever made at the facility. Soon thereafter, PCA closed its doors and effectively went out of business by filing a Chapter 7 liquidation petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The wrongful death lawsuit against PCA by PritzkerOlsen is continuing and the firm is close to filing its second wrongful death suit related to the outbreak. 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on March 04, 2009 (boomark / email).