More peanut plant problems

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal inspectors found that a Georgia peanut
plant now at the center of a salmonella outbreak exposed some of
its equipment to insecticides in 2001.

In a report based on that visit nearly eight years ago,
inspectors said that workers at the Peanut Corp. of America's plant
used an insecticide fogger not suitable for food areas and didn't
wash its equipment.

Food and Drug Administration inspectors also found dirty duct
tape on broken equipment, dead insects around peanuts, and gaps in
doors that allowed rodents to enter the plant.

Those findings in 2001 are similar to problems discovered last
month after the company shipped salmonella-tainted peanuts and
peanut butter linked to at least eight deaths and 575 illnesses in
43 states.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)