Federal criminal probe targets peanut plant

The South Georgia peanut butter plant linked to the national salmonella outbreak is now the subject of a federal criminal investigation, officials announced Friday.

Stephen Sundlof, head of food safety for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the agency has begun working with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“In order to prosecute a case, we always work with the Justice Department,” he said. “It’s an open investigation at this time.”

The announcement arrived one day after Gov. Sonny Perdue directed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to review whether the plant in Blakely, owned by Peanut Corp. of America, broke any state laws.

Federal health officials have identified the Georgia plant as the sole source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people in 43 states, including six in Georgia, and has been linked to the deaths of eight people.

Federal officials also announced Friday that schools in at least three states —- California, Idaho and Minnesota —- were shipped possibly tainted peanut products as part of the National School Lunch Program.

According to the FDA, the company on several occasions found salmonella in products, then retested them and put them on the market.

The company this week said it disagreed with the FDA’s findings and would rebut them in writing.

Federal officials also revealed Friday that before the salmonella outbreak had been recognized, a shipment of chopped peanuts from the Georgia plant was found to contain metal fragments. The shipment was returned from Canada in April of last year.

The FDA said the peanuts were eventually destroyed, after back-and-forth efforts between the FDA and Peanut Corp. of America broke down. The FDA rejected as “unacceptable” findings by a private lab hired by Peanut Corp. of America to analyze its product.

A spokesman for a food safety group criticized the company’s handling of the incident.

“This is another example of the company trying to skirt the law,” said Tony Corbo, a representative with Food & Water Watch, a Washington watchdog nonprofit group. “They were trying to get a lab to clear the product so they could put it back on the market.”

Also on Friday, the White House pledged stricter oversight of food safety in response to the salmonella outbreak. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Barack Obama plans to announce a new FDA commissioner and other oversight officials in the coming days.

In Georgia, state Sen. John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee) introduced legislation Friday that would require food-processing plants to test for contamination and report any problems to the Agriculture Department within one business day. The bill gives the department the right to inspect company test records. The lack of such access was considered a loophole, lawmakers have said.

The FDA said this week that the Blakely plant, in 12 instances in 2007 and 2008, found salmonella in batches of peanut butter and peanut paste. The company then retested the batches and put the products on the market.

Samples from a single batch of peanut butter can show contamination in one test and not in another, the FDA said, because salmonella might only be in part of the batch.

In Blakely, the president of a lab used to test the peanut butter and peanut paste did not know whether the batches had already been determined to contain the bacteria.

“We didn’t know the history of the samples when we got them,” said Darlene Cowart, president of J. Leek Associates. “We just tested them and then issued the results.”

Peanut Corp. of America, based in Lynchburg, Va., said in a statement this week that it “categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products.”

Staff writer Mary Lou Pickel and The Associated Press contributed to this article.