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Texas Fines Peanut Plant $14.6 Million For Violations

State charges PCA subsidiary with unsanitary conditions

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 10, 2009

• Complete List of Recalled Products --- • Texas Fines Peanut Plant $14.6 Million For Violations • Lawmakers Chastise Food Executives Over Salmonella Outbreak • Source of Salmonella Contamination in Peanut Butter May Be Found • More Pet Foods Added to Salmonella Recall • Peanut Recall Expanded To "All Ingredients" • Peanut Corporation of America Files for Bankruptcy • PCA Shuts Second Peanut Plant In Salmonella Scare • Peanut Butter Recall Claims Still More Products • Ice Cream, Cookies, Donuts Join the Massive Peanut Butter Recall List • Peanut Recall Expands as Feds Release Findings • Congresswoman Demands Peanut Probe • Feds: Peanut Corporation Knew of Salmonella Problem • Dozens More Peanut Butter Products Recalled • NutriSystem Joins Peanut Butter Recall • Peanut Butter Dog Treats Recalled Due to Salmonella • Peanut Butter Health Bars Recalled • Peanut Butter Recall List Grows • Peanut Butter Recall Spreads To More Products • Kellogg Puts Peanut Butter Crackers "On Hold" Due to Salmonella Concerns • Peanut Butter Recalled Due to Possible Salmonella Contamination • King Nut Issues Peanut Butter Recall • Consumer Complaints about Peanut Butter --- Earlier stories • Judge Nixes Peanut Butter Class Action • FDA Failed to Follow Up on 2004 Peanut Butter Contamination • Peter Pan Returning To Store Shelves • Consumers Still Getting Sick From Tainted Peanut Butter • Fourth Peanut Butter Death Reported • Peanut Butter Recall Extended to Products Made as Early as 2004 • Peanut Butter Scare Stirs Congress • Consumers Left Holding the Peanut Butter Jar • Earlier Peanut Butter Contamination Kept Quiet • Peanut Butter Developed as a Health Food • Third Death Blamed on Peanut Butter • Peanut Butter Recalls Spread to Ice Cream & Desserts • FDA Says Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak Is "Ongoing" • Salmonella Confirmed in Peanut Butter • Second Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • ConAgra Recalls Tainted Peanut Butter as Complaints Mount • FDA Widens Peanut Butter Warning • Reports of Peanut Butter-Borne Illness Increase • FDA Warns of Salmonella in Peanut Butter --- • Consumer Complaints about Peanut Butter --- • Salmonella: What It Is • More about Food Safety ...

The Texas Department of State Health Services has fined a subsidiary of Peanut Corporation of America for violations of food safety regulations. The state levied $14.6 million in administrative penalties against Plainview Peanut Co., LLC.

The alleged violations include unsanitary conditions, product contamination, illnesses linked to consumption of peanuts from the plant and operating for almost four years without a food manufacturer’s license from the state.

DSHS sent a "notice of violation" letter to the company yesterday. The company can accept and pay the penalties, ask for an informal conference with DSHS to discuss the allegations and penalties or request a formal hearing before an administrative law judge to dispute the allegations or penalties.

Any money collected will go the state's general revenue account, the agency said.

On February 12 DSHS ordered the facility to officially close and to recall all products shipped since it opened in March 2005.

PCA, the parent company, was at the center of the extensive peanut product recall in the first three months of this year. A nationwide outbreak of salmonella was traced to PCA's Georgia peanut processing plant.

At least nine deaths are attributed to the tainted peanuts and more than 600 people were sickened. Food companies were forced to recall and dispose of hundreds of millions of dollars of food products containing peanuts and peanut products.

The large number of products and brands recalled already, and the large quantities of some products recalled, makes this one of the largest food recalls ever in the United States.

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