This is a news story about the peanut recall.  All of the information in [brackets and underlined] are my comments I added.  The information in bold print is information I highlighted as important in the article.    

     List of Recalled Peanut Products Grows to More Than 400 Thursday, January 29, 2009 WASHINGTON — The list of recalled peanut products linked to a national salmonella outbreak just keeps growing. Already more than 400 kinds of cakes, cookies and other goods have been pulled off the shelves in one of the largest product recalls. 

     FDA: Plant Knowingly Shipped Contaminated Peanut Butter At the center of the investigation is a Georgia peanut processing plant where federal inspectors reported finding roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitary problems.

     Managers at the Blakely, Ga., plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America continued shipping peanut products even after they were found to contain salmonella. Peanut Corp. expanded its recall Wednesday to all peanut products produced at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. [This has been going on since the beginning of 2007!]

     The company is relatively small, but its peanut paste is an ingredient in hundreds of food products, from ice cream, to Asian-style sauces, to dog biscuits. A senior lawmaker in Congress and Georgia's agriculture commissioner called for a criminal investigation of the company, but the Food and Drug Administration said such a step is premature while its own food safety investigation continues. More than 500 people have gotten sick in the outbreak and at least eight may have died as a result of salmonella infection.

     The plant has stopped all production. "We feel very confident that it's one of the largest recalls we've had," said Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA's food safety center. "We're still in the process of identifying products, but it certainly is among the largest." Most of the older products recalled Wednesday have probably been eaten already. Officials said they see no signs of any earlier outbreaks that might be linked to the plant.

     The latest recall covers peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut meal and granulated products, as well as all peanuts — dry and oil roasted — shipped from the factory. FDA officials could not quantify the amount of products being recalled. Major national brands of peanut butter are not affected.

     Late Wednesday, Peanut Corp. of America President Stewart Parnell released a statement saying the recall was expanded out of an abundance of caution. [Yeah Right they should have voluntarily recalled the product when they first knew of the problem] "We have been devastated by this, and we have been working around the clock with the FDA to ensure any potentially unsafe products are removed from the market immediately," Parnell said,[But only after people got sick and some died] adding that company officials are cooperating with state and federal inquiries. Salmonella had been found previously at least 12 times in products made at the plant, but production lines were never cleaned after internal tests indicated contamination, FDA inspectors said in a report.  [How many times can a plant be found to carry potentially fatal contaminants before the FDA tells the American people, or even before a plant is required to clean up the problems?]

     Products that initially tested positive were retested. When the company got a negative reading, it shipped the products out. [Doesn't this make you sick, the plant didn't want to lose money from the product already produced, so they shipped it to us to eat, knowing someone could die] That happened as recently as September. A month later, health officials started picking up signals of the salmonella outbreak. [The FDA is as much to blame for this as the plant, they didn't require the contaminated batch to be discarded] PCA on Wednesday said it "categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products." [Do they really think were that stupid]

     Michael Rogers, a senior FDA investigator, said it's possible for salmonella to hide in small pockets of a large batch of peanut butter. That means the same batch can yield both positive and negative results, he said. The products should have been discarded after they first tested positive. Separately, senior congressional and state officials on Wednesday called for a federal probe of possible criminal violations [Possible?] at the plant. The company's actions "can only be described as reprehensible and criminal," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who oversees FDA funding. "This behavior represents the worst of our current food safety regulatory system." [I hope so]

     In Georgia, the state's top agriculture official joined DeLauro in asking the Justice Department to determine whether the case warrants criminal prosecution.

     [of course this warrants criminal prosecution. Think about this, they sold their product they knew was contaminated, people paid for it and brought it into their homes, We paid for it, they got the money, then we were told just to throw it out. Why should we be the ones losing money? They should not have been able to sell the tainted food and just say "oh whoops, just throw it away. We already got paid so Oh well." They need to pay for the food we threw out, the loss of wages, hospital and medications taken by the people who got sick and death benefits, funeral costs, medical bills, and restitution to the families of the deceased.  Unfortunately unless criminal charges are filed, and lawsuits are filed against the company hitting them where it hurts, the pocketbook, this type of criminal behaviors by companies will continue, there was no accident here, they knew that the product was not suitable for consumption, but still they sold their product to us, risking the lives of us and our children and families.

     I also feel the FDA should be held partially responsible, not financially, it's the government, the'll just print more money :0) but someone needs to be held accountable, someone needs to discover where the breakdown was not cleaning up the problem before people became sick and died.  12 previous violations were found in this plant, over a two year period of time, yet the plant wasn't ever required to shut down for a day to find and clean up the problem, yes shutting down for even a day means lost money for the plant, but if they knew violations would cost them something, they would be more likely to be sure the violations don't happen to begin with.

     There are new prodcts added to the list of contaminated products, you all may want to check it out to be sure your families are safe.  Keep in mind your elderly loved ones, my husband found snack crackers that were on the list in his Grandmother's cabinets, she lives in an assisted living facility, but has her own kitchen where she keeps snacks.  Anyone you know that doesn't typically watch the news you may want to check on also.  Thanks for listning to my rant, I hope all of you stay away from peanut products and remember it may be in chinese food also.  I hope no one else is affected by this terrible criminal facility.