The Texas Dept. of State Health Services has ordered the Peanut Corporation of America to recall all products “ever shipped” from its Plainview plant, after inspectors found dead rodents, excrement, and bird feathers in a crawl space above a production area. Inspectors also found that the plant’s air system wasn’t sealed, and was pulling “debris from the infested crawl space” into the production area “resulting in the adulteration of exposed food products.”
The plant, ordered yesterday to stop production, may not reopen without DSHS approval. DSHS is now having lab tests run on food samples taken from the plant.
PCA’s Georgia processing plant is at the center of the current salmonella outbreak that has sickened some 600 people and contributed to the death of nine. Nearly 200 food makers that use PCA products are now listed on a recall list of some 1,900 products.
Emails show that PCA’s chief executive Stewart Parnell knew back in October that the company had received tests results that found salmonella in PCA products. Nonetheless, in January, Stewart sent an email blaming the outbreak of salmonella on “cross-contamination” of an open contained of peanut butter found in the kitchen of a Minnesota nursing home. For real. Not surprisingly, Parnell repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right when questioned by Congress earlier this week.
This article appears in February 13 • 2009.