Droppings + Leaky Roof = Tainted Peanut Butter

If you or your family have become sick as a result of eating tainted peanut butter, call our Law Firm now at 800-862-1260. Call our Law Firm day or night, we are available to discuss your case for free and we will help you best determine how to proceed.

Last year it was tainted peanut butter. Now again this year the same problem, tainted peanut butter. In the most recent cases, it has been reported that bulk peanut butter that had been shipped to nursing homes and institutional cafeterias, was tainted. Now the salmonella cases have touched the Kellogg Corporation which has now recalled 16 products as federal officials confirm contamination at a Georgia facility that sent peanut products to 85 food companies.
This latest nationwide outbreak has sickened hundreds, if not thousands of people across the country and has killed at least six. If you or your family have become sick or was wrongfully killed as a result of eating tainted peanut butter, call our Law Firm now at 800-862-1260. Call our Law Firm day or night, we are available to discuss your case for free and help determine how to best to proceed.

It is the belief of this Law Firm that this is not the first contamination of peanut butter that has caused injury and death and unless the more careless manufactures start putting health and safety before corporate profits, this type of problem will continue. Call our Law Firm today and learn more about how and why "salmonella" has been able to get into the peanut butter supply of this Country on more that one occasion and why this condition can be so dangerous or even deadly.

It has now believed that rain water from a leaky roof and bird droppings or rat droppings on the roof leaked into the ConAgra Plant in Georgia. Then a faulty sprinkler system helped the salmonella bacteria grow and contaminate peanut butter being processed at the ConAgra Plant, sickening over 400 people nationwide. A two-month plus investigation has been ongoing searching for the cause of the contamination. What is believed occurred is bird droppings and/or rat droppings were deposited by rats and birds onto the roof. Then during a recent rain the bateria was sweeped into the plant through a leaky roof. Then once inside the salmonella continued growing within the plant, thanks to a faulty sprinkler system until this disaster occurred.

As a result, hundreds of children were sickened. ConAgra recalled all of its peanut butter in February 2007 after federal health officials linked it to cases of salmonella infection. At least 425 individuals in 44 states were sickened, and lawsuits have been filed against the company. The recall pertained to all Peter Pan peanut butter and all Great Value peanut butter made at the Sylvester plant since October 2004. The Sylvester Plant is ConAgra’s only peanut butter plant.

Con Agra plans to redesign the plant to provide greater separation between raw peanuts and the finished product. The plant will also get a new roof. The company plans to reopen the plant in early August. It should also be noted that before the recall, none of ConAgra’s recent routine testing had detected salmonella, so the company plans to develop a new procedure. Records indicate that the Food and Drug Administration last inspected the plant in February 2005. The agency failed to inspect the plant for almost two years after that day.

Salmonella sickens about 40,000 people a year in the U.S. and kills about 600. It can cause diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting. Often cases of salmonella poisoning are caused by undercooked eggs and chicken. The only previously known salmonella outbreak in peanut butter occurred in Australia during the mid-1990s and was blamed on unsanitary plant conditions. Hopefully, the plant maintenance will improve.

If you or a family member was sickened with the tainted peanut butter - call our Law Firm at 800-862-1260.

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