The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said the Peanut Corp. of America, the manufacturer tied to the current nationwide salmonella outbreak, continued to ship products with peanut butter during 2007 and 2008 despite internal tests, which had shown bacterial contamination.

 

More exactly, the FDA said the company has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella at least 12 times over the past two years.

 

Michael Rogers, director of the FDA’s division of field investigations, said the PCA did nothing to address the issue after finding salmonella in its products. Moreover, the company had the same product tested twice and got clean results in the second test.

 

“This was clearly a violation of good manufacturing practices. Foods are supposed to b produced under conditions that are not injurious to health,” said Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

 

The PCA has not commented on the findings. Spokesman George Clarke just issued a statement saying the company has fully cooperated with the FDA from the very beginning of the outbreak. “We have shared with them every record they have asked for,” he added.

 

The current salmonella outbreak tied to peanut butter has sickened 201 people in 43 states ad is believed to have contributed to eight deaths. Several companies have recalled more than 400 products thought to contain peanut butter from the PCA plant in Georgia.

 

The list of companies recalling their products voluntarily from the market includes Kellogg’s, the Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, the Akron, New York-based Perry's Ice Cream Co., and the South Bend Chocolate Co. in Indiana, Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products in suburban Chicago, and McKee Foods Corp. of Collegedale, Tennessee.

 

The results of the investigation will be available online on FDA Web site.