Salmonella news updates

[dreamweaver]

Texas fines PCA plant $14 million
The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) assessed the Peanut Corporation of America's (PCA) Plainview plant—implicated in a nationwide Salmonella outbreak—$14.6 million in administrative penalties for allegedly violating state food safety regulations. The charges include unsanitary conditions, product contamination, illnesses from peanuts processed at the plant, and operating for nearly 4 years without a state food manufacturers license. The TDSHS said PCA can pay the penalty, ask for an informal conference to discuss the allegations and penalty, or request a formal administrative hearing.
[Apr 9 TDSHS press release]

No source found on E coli O111 outbreak
In a final report on the nation's largest Escherichia coli O111 outbreak, linked in August 2008 to a Locust Grove, Okla., restaurant, officials said they still don't know the food or environmental source of the pathogen, though the investigation revealed that it was a point-source outbreak. Investigators weren't able to determine the mode of the outbreak, though they said evidence suggests ongoing E coli O111 transmission to restaurant patrons between Aug 15 and Aug 24, 2008. The outbreak was linked to 341 cases, 70 hospitalizations, and 1 death.
[Apr 9 OSDH epidemiological report]

Tests show no Salmonella in NY pistachio plant
The New York State Department of Agriculture (NYSDA) announced today that food and environmental samples from a Setton Farms facility in Commack, N.Y., were negative for Salmonella. Kraft Foods previously found four Salmonella strains in Setton Farms pistachios used in certain brands of trail mix, and the findings have sparked a national recall of many products that contain pistachios. No illnesses have yet to be officially linked to the contaminated pistachios.
[Apr 10 NYSDA press release]