CDC Sees Possible Link With 2007 Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak
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In Thursday’s lengthy synopsis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the current investigation into the ongoing Salmonella outbreak, there was a fleeting mention of an intriguing finding.
A Pritzker | Olsen review of the document noticed that the CDC said it is taking a closer look at a laboratory correlation made recently by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
After being the first laboratory in the country to associate the current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak with peanut butter made at the Blakely, Georgia, peanut processing plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), Minnesota health investigators continued to test peanut butter that came from the plant.
On January 22, they found that a recently manufactured, previously unopened container of King Nut peanut butter made at the Blakely plant by PCA yielded Salmonella serotype Tennessee with a DNA fingerprint that was indistinguishable from the strain associated with the multistate Salmonella outbreak in 2006-2007. That outbreak was caused by contaminated Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter sold by ConAgra.
Even though the Salmonella Tennessee strain is not associated with an increase in illnesses in the current outbreak (529 sickened in 43 states), the CDC is digging into it. That’s partly because the implicated processing plant in the 2006-2007 outbreak is located approximately 70 miles from PCA’s plant in Blakely. The CDC put it this way:
“A possible association between the two outbreaks warrants further investigation. The relationship of the (Salmonella) Tennessee finding to the current outbreak is being investigated further.”
Pritzker | Olsen, a national food safety law firm, handled cases for victims in the Peter Pan peanut butter Salmonella outbreak. In the current outbreak, founder and president Fred Pritzker is representing the families of two Minnesotans who died with Salmonella infections that matched the outbreak strain.
Earlier this week, Pritzker filed a wrongful death lawsuit against PCA on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham. A second suit is expected to be filed soon for the family of Doris Flatgard, 87, who died January 4. Both women were living in long-term care facilities in Brainerd that served King Nut peanut butter.
Doris Flatgard; 3rd Minnesotan to Die in Salmonella Outbreak
Fred Pritzker, president and founder of national food safety law firm Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., has been chosen to represent the families of two Minnesotans who died in the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people in 43 states. Federal officials say the outbreak may be associated with eight deaths, including three in Minnesota.
On Monday, Pritzker filed a peanut butter Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham. Mrs. Almer died Dec. 21 after consuming contaminated peanut butter made by PCA that had been shipped to the nursing home in Brainerd where she was temporarily residing.
Since the suit was filed in Hennepin County District Court, Pritzker also has been chosen to represent the family of Doris Flatgard. Mrs. Flatgard, 87, formerly of the Bergen, Minn., area, died January 4, the third Minnesotan to die in the outbreak. She resided in the Good Samaritan Society-Oakwood nursing home in Brainerd. Pritzker said she regularly ate peanut butter and toast for breakfast.
All three Minnesotans who have died in the outbreak, including 78-year-old Clifford Tousignant of Duluth, were residing in Good Samaritan long-term care facilities in Brainerd, though each lived in a different building.
The nursing homes were using peanut butter that was later recalled by Peanut Corporation of America after Minnesota health investigators confirmed that it contained Salmonella that genetically matched the strain of bacteria alive in the outbreak.
Pritzker has reviewed the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection recordsfor the Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, Georgia, plant implicated in the national Salmonella outbreak. In ten separate observations, the FDA inspectors noted a series of shocking sanitation violations including:
- Shipping product after it tested positive for at two separate Salmonella subtypes
- Failure to clean and sanitize the peanut paste production line after Salmonella was isolated from the product produced on that line
- Failure to confirm the effectiveness of the heating process designed to kill pathogenic bacteria (including Salmonella) during the production process (the so-called “kill step)
- Failure to safety store finished product (product that had already been subject to the kill step was stored in close proximity to raw product) and failure to properly clean storage areas)
- Failure to properly construct and maintain the plant’s roof (resulting in huge gaps that allow rainwater to seep into the plant and onto production areas)
- Failure to use production equipment capable of being properly cleaned
- Failure to use a negative pressure ventilation system (negative room pressure would direct air flow away from the finished product areas) and failure to segregate raw and finished product
- Failure to have properly designated hand cleaning sinks
- Failure to properly clean utensils and food production equipment
- Failure to prevent insect and pest contamination
Pritzker said the findings show a callous disregard for consumer health and disease prevention. Worse, he said, these violations are not isolated in time. They appear to have existed for months if not years. And that raises an equally disturbing issue: Where were the inspectors before the outbreak occurred? Why weren’t test results reported to state officials? Why were these conditions ignored for such a long period of time?
“The answer is simple, but shocking: There is no uniform system of inspection and testing that applies to plants like this one. There are also insufficient funds allocated for funding existing inspection and testing programs. This has to change. The United States Congress has to pass and the President has to sign legislation that prevents this gross violation of sanitation from ever happening again,” Pritzker said.
Third Minnesota Death in Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak
Minnesota health officials say a third nursing home resident in the state has died after becoming infected with the same strain of Salmonella Typhimurium bacteria that is causing hundreds of illnesses nationwide.
The woman, in her 80s, is the seventh person in the country to have her death associated with the outbreak. Officials are declining to disclose her name or say when she died.
The two other Minnesotans are Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham, who died Dec. 21; and Clifford Tousignant, 78, of Duluth, who died Jan. 12. Almer and Tousignant were both staying in nursing homes in Brainerd that served King Nut peanut butter later found to be contaminated with the outbreak strain of Salmonella. Mrs. Almer and Mr. Tousignant were both infected with Salmonella and had other health conditions.
Fred Pritzker, a leading food safety lawyer, is set to file a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court for the heirs of Mrs. Almer. The Salmonela wrongful death lawsuit will name Peanut Corporation of America, the maker of bulk peanut butter and peanut paste that federal officials have said is the likely source of the deadly outbreak.
In all, there have been 491 illnesses in 43 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two deaths were reported in Virginia, one in North Carolina and one in Idaho.
In Minnesota, there have been 36 cases — fourth most in the country. A state Health Department epidemeologist, Dr. Carolota Medus, told the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infections Disease Research and Policy that the Minnesota cases started showing up in November.
She said health investigators got a big break when a physician from northern Minnesota reported a cluster of diarrheal illnesses at a nursing home. When clusters in other institutions occurred, state investigators confirmed it was Salmonella and gathered food invoices from the places and noticed that they had something in common: King Nut peanut butter from the Sysco food distributor based in Fargo.
At the nursing home where Mrs. Almer was staying, the state took samples of peanut butter from a container that had been in use there. What lab specialists found was the same strain of Salmonella alive in the outbreak. The discovery turned the attention of federal authorities to Peanut Corporation of America’s processing plant in Blakely, Georgia.
Since the Minnesota departments of health and agriculture announced their finding on January 9, other government labs have found additional evidence tying the outbreak to the Georgia plant. The facility has been closed, its 50 workers laid off and a massive recall of peanut butter and peanut paste has ensued.
Because the bulk peanut butter and peanut paste from the South Georgia plant were sold to more than 80 food companies as ingredients for other products, more than 180 items have been recalled across the nation because they might contain adulterated peanut butter or paste. Among the earlier products pulled were peanut butter snack crackers made by Kellogg Company under the Austin and Keebler brand names.
