In 2007, there was a salmonella outbreak that January that sickened hundreds of people in the United States. This was something that impacted many lives and was something that was one of the biggest lawsuits for food borne illnesses. The salmonella was sourced at the Blakely, GA Peanut Corporation of America, or PCA, plant. On January 30, 2007 the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, confirmed salmonella in the Peter Pan Peanut Butter.
In approximately mid-February, the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, reported 550 people being sickened by the salmonella in 43 states with possibly 8 deaths. As this was looked into further detail, most of the victims of the salmonella were under the age of 16. These peanuts and peanut based products were …show more content…
They had many pieces of evidence that the company not only had many health concerns within the factory itself, but also that they were shipping and selling the products they were making even though they definitely knew that they were selling tainted products. There were documents and emails released to the United States House Energy and Commerce Committee that proved that the PCA was selling these products before they even had gotten lab results back. This was after the company did not agree to divulge their test records and then the Georgia State Senate passed a bill stating that it is now required for peanut product manufacturers to report contamination within 24 hours. Failure to do so would result in felony charges. Emails stated on March 21, 2007, that the President and CEO, Stewart Parnell, said to send the tainted products after finding out information that the test results would delay the shipment. This not only was going against the bill that the Georgia State Senate passed, but it is also very unhealthy. These items were eventually going to go to many young and older people, both with very weak immune systems. Aside from the people having possible weak immune systems, they were putting their families in harm. Their own children and grandchildren were eating these items. They would have either felt terrible if one of their family members had gotten sick, or worse, died from eating those products, or would have tried to blame it on something else and then it would have eventually ended back up to
In approximately mid-February, the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, reported 550 people being sickened by the salmonella in 43 states with possibly 8 deaths. As this was looked into further detail, most of the victims of the salmonella were under the age of 16. These peanuts and peanut based products were …show more content…
They had many pieces of evidence that the company not only had many health concerns within the factory itself, but also that they were shipping and selling the products they were making even though they definitely knew that they were selling tainted products. There were documents and emails released to the United States House Energy and Commerce Committee that proved that the PCA was selling these products before they even had gotten lab results back. This was after the company did not agree to divulge their test records and then the Georgia State Senate passed a bill stating that it is now required for peanut product manufacturers to report contamination within 24 hours. Failure to do so would result in felony charges. Emails stated on March 21, 2007, that the President and CEO, Stewart Parnell, said to send the tainted products after finding out information that the test results would delay the shipment. This not only was going against the bill that the Georgia State Senate passed, but it is also very unhealthy. These items were eventually going to go to many young and older people, both with very weak immune systems. Aside from the people having possible weak immune systems, they were putting their families in harm. Their own children and grandchildren were eating these items. They would have either felt terrible if one of their family members had gotten sick, or worse, died from eating those products, or would have tried to blame it on something else and then it would have eventually ended back up to