WASHINGTON — A second peanut-processing plant owned by the company at the heart of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness has been shut down after the bacteria were discovered in peanut products there.
Peanut Corporation of America shuttered its Plainview, Texas, plant Monday night at the request of state health officials, said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. The action came after laboratory results from samples taken Feb. 4 of roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanuts were positive for salmonella.
Additional analysis is needed to confirm the contamination and determine whether it is the same type of salmonella linked to the current outbreak, McBride said.
The bacteria were discovered before the affected granulated peanuts and peanut meal had left the Texas plant but after contaminated roasted peanuts had been shipped out of state, McBride said. Company officials notified the distributor and recalled the roasted peanuts, he said.
A spokeswoman of Peanut Corporation of America did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal investigation of the ongoing salmonella illness, which has killed eight people and sickened 600 in 44 states — including 15 in Colorado — has centered on the company’s Blakely, Ga., plant. The company owns a third peanut-processing plant in Virginia.
In conference calls with reporters in January, Michael Rogers, the director of field investigations at the Food and Drug Administration, said federal officials were aware of the two other plants but had focused on the Georgia plant.
Federal officials said they were not aware that Peanut Corporation of America was operating a peanut processing plant in Texas until after they began investigating the Georgia facility in early January.
The Texas plant had been operating since 2005, unknown to state or federal regulators. It was not registered with the state and therefore had never been inspected by health officials, McBride said.
Federal investigators say Peanut Corporation’s Georgia plant knowingly shipped products contaminated with salmonella on at least 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008. The list of recalled products, which is updated regularly, can be found at .
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of the company, and its president, Stewart Parnell, has been asked to appear today at a hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
