FBI raids peanut firm’s Bedford County headquarters

UPDATE: Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Federal agents on Monday raided the Bedford County headquarters of Peanut Corp. of America, linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has prompted one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.

Related:

Peanut Recall Round-up - Your one-stop source for news from around the Web about the salmonella outbreak linked to Lynchburg-based Peanut Corporation of America.

Peanut company and its president keeping a low profile - Feb. 7, 2009

 

The FBI executed search warrants at both the headquarters and a peanut processing plant in Blakely, Ga., according to a senior congressional aide with knowledge of the raids. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The plant has been identified as the source of the salmonella that has sickened hundreds and killed as many as eight people. Atlanta television station WSB’s cameras captured FBI agents entering the Georgia plant and leaving with boxes and other material.

The company’s headquarters are in the back of the home of company president Stewart Parnell, tucked away near the end of Lynchburg’s Wiggington Road just over the city line in Bedford County.

The office here has only a few employees. Parnell has kept a low profile in the wake of the salmonella outbreak and subsequent investigation, repeatedly denying requests for interviews. Public relations officials hired by the company last month have said little, and the company’s Web site, which once boasted of Peanut Corp.’s history and gave details about its operations, has been deleted except for one page with a few press releases.

Earlier Monday, Agent Gregory Jones in Atlanta said the FBI had joined the investigation into the outbreak. The FBI didn’t immediately return a message left seeking further comment on the raid Monday night.

The House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee, which also is investigating how tainted peanuts got into the food supply, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has called a meeting on Tuesday to issue a subpoena for Parnell, who has indicated he will not otherwise appear at Wednesday’s hearing, the congressional source said.

Monday’s searches come three days after Food and Drug Administration investigators said Peanut Corp. knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products from its Georgia plant after tests showed the products were contaminated. Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers’ health.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and more than 1,550 products have been recalled.

This is not the first time Peanut Corporation of America has been accused of shipping contaminated products. According to documents filed in Bedford County Circuit Court, the Food and Drug Administration cited PCA in 1990 for shipping peanut products containing aflatoxins, which are toxic compounds produced by a mold that can grow on food. The finding resulted in a recall and at least one lawsuit against PCA.

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Updated Tuesday 6:37 a.m.

Federal agents on Monday raided a Georgia peanut processing plant linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak that has prompted one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.
  The FBI executed search warrants at both the plant in Blakely, Ga., and at Peanut Corp. of America’s headquarters in Lynchburg, Va., according to a senior congressional aide with knowledge of the raids. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
  The plant has been identified as the source of the salmonella that has sickened hundreds and killed as many as eight people.
  Atlanta television station WSB’s cameras captured FBI agents entering the plant and leaving with boxes and other material.
  Earlier Monday, Agent Gregory Jones in Atlanta said the FBI had joined the investigation into the outbreak. The FBI didn’t immediately return a message left seeking further comment on the raid Monday night.
  The House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee, which also is investigating how tainted peanuts got into the food supply, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has called a meeting on Tuesday to issue a subpoena for company president Stewart Parnell, who has indicated he will not otherwise appear at Wednesday’s hearing, the congressional source said.
  Monday’s searches come three days after Food and Drug Administration investigators said Peanut Corp. knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products from its Georgia plant after tests showed the products were contaminated. Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers’ health.
  The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and more than 1,550 products have been recalled.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agents have raided a Georgia peanut processing plant linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak, hauling away boxes and other material.
  A senior congressional aide with knowledge of the raids said the FBI executed search warrants Monday at both the plant in Blakely, Ga., and at Peanut Corp. of America’s headquarters in Lynchburg, Va.
  The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
  Atlanta television station WSB’s cameras captured FBI agents entering the facility and leaving with the boxes.
  The FBI didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on the raids.
  The salmonella outbreak has sickened 575 people and may have caused as many as eight deaths.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Weeks before the earliest signs of a national salmonella outbreak that now has been traced to peanuts from a Georgia processing plant, peanuts exported by the same company were found to be contaminated and were returned to the United States, The Associated Press has learned.

  The rejected shipment - coming over the U.S. border across a bridge between New York and Canada - was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never was tested by federal inspectors, according to the government’s own records.

  The chopped peanuts from Peanut Corp. of America in Blakely, Ga., were prevented by the FDA from being allowed back into the United States in mid-September because the peanuts contained an unspecified “filthy, putrid or decomposed substance, or is otherwise unfit for food,“ according to an FDA report of the incident.

  It was not immediately clear whether the date on the government’s record, Sept. 15, was when the unspecified importer rejected the shipment or when the FDA refused it. It also was not known whether the peanut shipment ultimately was destroyed or sent somewhere else.

  The FDA said it could not provide details about the incident. Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America didn’t immediately respond to AP’s request for comment. Federal inspectors previously reported they found roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitation issues at the company’s processing plant in Blakely believed to be the source of the outbreak.

  Members of Congress noted that the timing of the discovery of the adulterated peanuts came just weeks before the first clear signs of the salmonella
outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people in the United States and may have killed at least eight. The FDA has since ordered recalls of a long list of products containing nuts from Peanut Corp.

  “The FDA failing to follow up after this incident, does that mean that products that are not good enough for a foreign country are still good enough for the USA?“ asked Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “That’s a double standard that has deadly consequences for our citizens.“ Harkin plans hearings on the outbreak and has proposed an overhaul of the nation’s food inspection network.

  The House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., announced oversight hearings in the House will begin Feb. 11.

  The head of the House appropriations panel that oversees FDA funding, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, called the discovery of the bad shipment in September “a perfect example of the patchwork system.“

  “Why was it able to get exported in the first place?“ said DeLauro, D-Conn. “That also begs the question, how many contaminated products are getting through our borders every single day? If the FDA discovered that there was an issue with this product inspection, why didn’t they follow up on it? Why didn’t they take a closer look at this facility?“

  DeLauro said she wants the Justice Department to investigate the salmonella outbreak, and also is pressing for major changes in food safety oversight.

  The government recorded the peanuts’ seizure in the FDA’s Oasis system, designed to prevent shipments into the United States of unsafe foreign products. In this case, it caught peanuts coming back into the U.S. after they were rejected abroad. According to the government’s database, the FDA did not analyze a sample of the adulterated peanuts. The records show conflicting information about whether the FDA has a record of an analysis of the peanuts from a private lab.

  The seizure of the peanuts in September is significant because it came just before the salmonella outbreak, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

  “It strikes me that if FDA was paying attention to this information, that they might have gone and done an inspection of the plant in September instead of waiting until after the products were associated with a major outbreak,“ she said. DeWaal said she thinks “the question for the agency is how did they use it when it happened.“

  The incident was among nearly 1,400 around the country in September in which the FDA refused to allow shipments into or back into the United States, often because products are not approved for sale in the U.S. or were improperly labeled. In a few cases in September, the FDA actually detected salmonella on items coming into the U.S.

  The rejected peanut shipment was stopped at a border crossing, apparently in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., suggesting the chopped peanuts had been sent
originally to Canada. Canadian government officials told the AP they could not confirm the shipment.

  Canada this week recalled several products as a result of the outbreak. The country is working with the FDA to trace back possible distribution of the products, said Garfield Balsom, spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Office of Food Safety and Recall.