YAHOO/AP: Calif. nut plant: Kraft found salmonella in 2008

FRESNO, Calif. – A company at the heart of a nationwide pistachio recall said Friday that Kraft Foods Inc. detected salmonella in its pistachios more than six months ago but didn't report the finding until last week.

Lee Cohen, a New York plant production manager for Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., said Kraft told them on March 24 that the tainted nuts were found in a mixed snack blend that also contained salmonella-tainted cherries.

Kraft spokeswoman Susan Davison said manufacturer Georgia Nut Co. first found the bacteria in its Kraft Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix in September 2008, but it took more than six months of testing to determine what caused the contamination.

YAHOO/REUTERS: Dead mice found at salmonella U.S. peanut plant

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Dead mice and rodent droppings were found throughout a Texas plant run by a company whose peanut products caused one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history, food inspectors reported on Tuesday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors who for the first time visited the Plainview, Texas, food processing plant run by Peanut Corporation of America were clearly disgusted by what they found last month.

"Effective measures are not being taken to exclude pests from the processing areas and protect against the contamination of food on the premises by pests," the report reads.

YAHOO/AP: Peanut Corp. of America files for bankruptcy

ATLANTA – The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak is going out of business. The Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia Friday, the latest bad news for the company that has been accused of producing tainted peanut products that may have reached everyone from poor school children to disaster victims.

MSNBC: Salmonella found at Ga. plant as early as 2006

WASHINGTON - See the jar, the congressman challenged Stewart Parnell, holding up a container of the peanut seller's products and asking if he'd dare eat them. Parnell pleaded the Fifth.

The owner of the peanut company at the heart of the massive salmonella recall refused to answer the lawmaker's questions — or any others — Wednesday about the bacteria-tainted products he defiantly told employees to ship to some 50 manufacturers of cookies, crackers and ice cream.

YAHOO/AP: Lab tests show possible salmonella at Texas plant

ATLANTA – Private lab tests show there may have been salmonella at a second plant operated by the peanut company at the center of a national outbreak, but the potentially tainted products were not sent to consumers, Texas health officials said Tuesday.

USA TODAY: Peanut boss refuses to testify at salmonella hearing

The head of the company linked to a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products refused to testify at a Congressional hearing Wednesday as lawmakers accused him of caring more about profits than food safety.

Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell invoked his fifth amendment right not to testify, as did the plant manager at the Blakely, Ga., plant implicated in the outbreak, during the hearing before a House subcommittee. Both men also refused to eat recalled products that one lawmaker offered to them from a jar.

NY TIMES: Peanut Case Shows Holes in Safety Net

BLAKELY, Ga. — Raw peanuts were stored next to the finished peanut butter. The roaster was not calibrated to kill deadly germs. Dispirited workers on minimum wage, supplied by temp agencies, donned their uniforms at home, potentially dragging contaminants into the plant, which also had rodents.

FREE PRESS: FDA: Plant knowingly sold salmonella-laced food

WASHINGTON— A Georgia peanut plant knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products as far back as 2007, at times sending out tainted products after tests confirmed contamination, federal health officials said today.

YAHOO/AP: Firm tied to salmonella ran unlicensed Texas plant

WASHINGTON – A peanut processing plant in Texas run by the same company blamed for a national salmonella outbreak operated for years uninspected and unlicensed by government health officials, The Associated Press has learned. The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview was never inspected until after the company fell under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration, according to Texas health records obtained by AP.

YAHOO/AP: AP Exclusive: Bad peanuts found before outbreak

WASHINGTON – Weeks before the earliest signs of a national salmonella outbreak that now has been traced to peanuts from a Georgia processing plant, peanuts exported by the same company were found to be contaminated and were returned to the United States, The Associated Press has learned.

The rejected shipment — coming over the U.S. border across a bridge between New York and Canada — was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never was tested by federal inspectors, according to the government's own records.

YAHOO/REUTERS: FDA says Georgia plant is sole salmonella source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sole source of the U.S. salmonella outbreak involving contaminated peanut butter appears to be the Peanut Corp of America's Blakely, Georgia processing facility, federal officials said on Wednesday.

More than 125 products including cookies, crackers, ice cream and even some pet food have been recalled in connection with the outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

Six deaths may be associated with the outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC said at least 486 people from 43 states and one person in Canada have been reported ill from the outbreak of the Salmonella typhimurium strain, with 107 of them being hospitalized.

Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said Connecticut health authorities tested an unopened container of peanut butter from the PCA's Blakely plant and discovered the strain linked to the outbreak of illness.

The fact that the unopened container had the strain indicates contamination did not occur after it was shipped from the facility, Sundlof said. Coupled with previous evidence, Sundlof said authorities believe the Blakely plant is the only source of the outbreak.

MLIVE: FDA: 125-plus products recalled in peanut outbreak

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 125 products have been recalled in a salmonella-and-peanuts investigation that keeps getting bigger, federal health officials said Wednesday.

The list ranges from goodies like cookies and ice cream to energy bars. Even food for pooches may not be entirely safe, with a national company recalling some of its dog treats.

USA TODAY: FDA: Keep a lid on some peanut butter snacks for now

Americans who like peanut butter cookies, crackers, candy and ice cream were told over the weekend to stop eating anything — for now — that they have in their cupboards containing that ingredient.

The Food and Drug Administration is asking consumers to avoid foods that may be contaminated until it has cleared them. FDA staff are working to track what products contain salmonella-tainted peanut butter and paste made in a Georgia manufacturing plant.

USA TODAY: Peanut butter distributor recalls product amid salmonella scare

The brand of peanut butter that tested positive for salmonella in Minnesota and is possibly connected to a nationwide outbreak has been voluntarily recalled by its distributor, King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio.

The Minnesota Dept. of Health on Friday issued a warning that a five pound tub of creamy peanut butter distributed by King Nut had tested positive for salmonella bacteria. Staff said epidemiological evidence pointed to that brand being implicated in a nationwide outbreak of salmonella typhimurium which has sickened 399 people in 42 states.