WASHINGTON — The salmonella outbreak spawned one of the largest-ever product recalls Wednesday. An expanded recall was issued by a Georgia peanut plant where federal inspectors reported finding roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitary problems.
Managers at the Blakely, Ga., plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America continued shipping peanut products, even after they were found to contain salmonella.
Peanut Corp. broadened its recall Wednesday to all peanut products produced at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. The company is relatively small, but its peanut paste is an ingredient in hundreds of other food products, from ice cream to Asian-style sauces to dog biscuits.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who oversees funding of the Food and Drug Administration, and Tommy Irvin, Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, called for a criminal investigation of the company, but the FDA said such a step is premature while its own food-safety investigation continues.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, likened food manufacturers to truant children who “can’t be relied on to report their own problems and correct them in a timely fashion, so we’re going to have to make them do it.”
More than 500 people — including 12 in Colorado — have gotten sick in the outbreak, and at least eight may have died as a result of salmonella infection. More than 400 products have been recalled. The plant has halted production.
“We feel very confident that it’s one of the largest recalls we’ve had,” said Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA’s food-safety center.
The latest recall covers peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut meal and granulated products, as well as all peanuts — dry and oil-roasted — shipped from the factory.
Salmonella had been found previously at least 12 times in products made at the plant, but production lines were never cleaned up after internal tests indicated contamination, FDA inspectors said in a report. Products that initially tested positive were retested. When the company got a negative reading, it went ahead and shipped out the product anyway.
That happened as recently as September. A month later, health officials started picking up signals of the salmonella outbreak.
Michael Rogers, a senior FDA investigator, said it’s possible for salmonella to hide in small pockets of a large batch of peanut butter. That means the same batch can yield both positive and negative results, he said.
A searchable list of products affected by the recall can be found on the FDA’s website, .
The New York Times contributed to this report.
