Recall Friday

January 30, 10:58 AMFood ExaminerEric Burkett

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Cropwell Bishop Creamery has issued a
recall for two of its blue cheeses.

The peanut recall, already astounding, took an ugly turn Wednesday when the Food and Drug Administration accused Peanut Corporation of America of knowingly shipping out product despite a long record of problems at its Blakely, Ga., processing plant.

An FDA inspection on Jan. 9 found, on 12 separate occasions in 2007 and 2008, the plant discovered evidence of Salmonella contamination in its own inspections, but retested until they got negative readings, the New York Times reported earlier this week.

“The [FDA] found that the Georgia plant had mold on its ceiling and walls,” the Times said, “and footlong gaps in its roof. The report also found that even after the company discovered that its peanut butter was contaminated, it did not clean its equipment.” Plant operators also failed to adequately separate raw peanuts from finished product, a violation of both federal and state regulations.

Peanut Corp. insists it did nothing wrong, but has increased its recall to everything it produced at the Blakely plant between now and Jan. 1, 2007.

“PCA categorically denies any allegations that the company sought favorable results from any lab in order to ship its products,” the company said in a statement earlier this week. “Furthermore, it is important to note that the FD-483 documents posted today by the FDA… ‘do not represent a final Agency determination regarding [your] compliance. If you have implemented, or plan to implement, corrective action in response to an observation... you may submit this information to FDA.’ During the recent two-week FDA onsite investigation at the Blakely, Georgia plant, the company did take corrective action, where possible. PCA does not agree with all the observations noted, and there are some inaccuracies. Therefore, it will respond in writing to the FDA.”

The FDA is continuing to update its list of recalls by companies throughout the country.

Imported cheese recall
A British cheese maker, Cropwell Bishop Creamery Limited, has issued a recall of limited amounts of its Blue Stilton and Shropshire Blue cheeses because of possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The cheese was distributed throughout the United States. A full list of the affected cheeses is available through the FDA.