[jyl]

Some folks in Georgia had better be going to jail. 8 have died and nearly 600 sickened, so far.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-peanut-fda7-2009feb07,0,6413500.story

Peanut Corp. of America, the company that produced the contaminated peanut butter now being widely recalled, lied to Food and Drug Administration investigators about shipping batches of the food known to be tainted with salmonella bacteria, the agency said Friday.

That contamination has led to the unprecedented nationwide recall of hundreds of products, including items as varied as cookies, crackers, health bars, ice cream and dog biscuits. The company had previously told the FDA that some lots of peanut butter had initially tested positive for the bacterium, then were retested and found to be negative before they were shipped.

But further investigation showed that the company actually shipped some of the lots before the second tests were completed. Other lots were shipped without testing and, in some cases, without a second test even after the first one came back positive.

The lots were shipped to a vast array of food manufacturers, and peanuts and peanut products from a Peanut Corp. plant have now been linked to eight deaths and 575 illnesses in 43 states. Beginning in January, food companies began initiating a massive recall of snacks and other foods containing the products.