FDA Issues Guidance on Peanut-Derived Ingredients
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week issued guidance to the food industry about the risk of Salmonella contamination posed by peanuts and peanut-derived products used as food ingredients. The guidance also recommended measures that food manufacturers can take to address that risk from their ingredient suppliers and for the products they themselves produce.
The guidance recommends that manufacturers obtain their peanut-derived ingredients only from suppliers whose production processes have been demonstrated to adequately reduce the presence of Salmonella or ensure that their own manufacturing processes would adequately reduce that presence.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the Peanut Corp. of America filed documents in bankruptcy court listing nearly $11.4 million in assets and debts of $4.8 million. Most of the assets will not be available to compensate consumers. Peanut Corp. filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February 2009 amid growing fallout from a national Salmonella outbreak, which reportedly sickened more than 650 people and purportedly caused nine deaths. The outbreak led to the recall of more than 2,670 peanut products, according to FDA.
In a related development, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has held a hearing and released new documents from a 2008 food safety audit conducted at Peanut Corp. facilities; the auditor hired by Peanut Corp. failed to find any sanitation issues and issued a “superior” quality certification for the company’s Texas facility. Subcommittee Chair, Representative Bart
Stupak (D-Mich.) was quoted as saying, “There is an obvious and inherent conflict of interest when an auditor works for the same supplier it is evaluating.” See Associated Press, March 7, 2009; Yahoo News, March 19, 2009.
