Salmonella Found at Peanut Butter Plant
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Salmonella has been found inside the Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant that federal health officials currently consider to be the only source of a 43-state Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that has sickened at least 486 people.
The outbreak is ongoing and so far has been associated with six deaths, including the death of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Minnesota. PritzkerLaw of Minneapolis plans to file a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit this week on behalf of Mrs. Almers' heirs. The suit will be against plant owner Peanut Corporation of America and Ohio-based King Nut Companies, a distributor of peanut butter made at the plant.
Another Minnesotan, Army veteran Clifford Tousignant, 78, also died after suffering a Salmonella infection associated with the outbreak.
PritzkerLaw is one of the few legal firms in the country that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. Founder and president Fred Pritzker has experience in peanut butter Salmonella outbreak cases (Peter Pan, 2007) and practically all major foodpoisoning outbreaks in the United States.
Outbreak Investigation
The latest information on the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak came Wednesday in a media update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA's Dr. Stephen Sundlof said investigators believe the South Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America is the only source of the outbreak.
"That is our assumption at this point,'' Reuters quoted Sundlof as saying.
Reuters quoted federal officials as saying that inspectors recently found Salmonella on the floor of the plant, which has been shut down pending investigation. While the bacteria didn't match the strain of Salmonella tied to the outbreak, Sundlof said the finding is an indication that something is wrong at the plant.
In yet another indication that the Georgia plant is the source of the outbreak, the CDC said Wednesday in a press release that King Nut peanut butter made at the Georgia plant was the only peanut butter in use at 14 of 15 places where health investigators reported clusters of Salmonella illness matching the outbreak strain. The clusters occurred at institutions such as nursing homes, hospitals and schools.
Mrs. Almer was at a nursing home in Brainerd, Minnesota, when she was sickened by the outbreak strain of Salmonella. She had eaten a piece of toast covered with King Nut creamy peanut butter. Minnesota state health officials later determined that the container of peanut butter in use at the nursing home carried Salmonella that matched the DNA fingerprint of the outbreak strain.
Tousignant also was living in a nursing home in Brainerd when he contracted the outbreak strain of Salmonella.
Peanut Corporation of America has expanded its recall to include all peanut butter and peanut paste made at the facility since July 1, 2008. The peanut paste and most of the peanut butter was sold to more than 80 food companies as ingredients for other products.
One line of products closely associated with the outbreak is peanut butter snack crackers made by Kellogg Company under the brands of Keebler and Austin.
Every day, more companies recall products that contain the potentially tainted ingredients. As of Wednesday, the FDA list included more than 125 products possibly adulterated with Salmonella.
