WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Associated Press has learned a processing plant in Texas run by the same company blamed for a national salmonella outbreak operated uninspected and unlicensed for years.
Texas health records show the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Plainview had never been inspected until after the company recently fell under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
FDA inspectors went through the plant two-weeks-ago. No sign of salmonella has been found there, but the fact it’s existed for so long is raising more questions about the government’s efforts to keep the food supply safe.
The plant manager says he’s not sure why licensing forms haven’t been completed, since he sent them to the company’s Virginia headquarters more than a year ago.
An FDA official in Texas says the facility was properly registered with the agency as a food processing plant.