Let me first say I am very sad for those who have been killed in this outbreak. My deepest sympathies to their families. There’s no reason anyone should be killed by food in these modern times. It’s outrageous.

As of this writing, the Salmonella typhimurium was traced to the Peanut Corporation of America, of course in Georgia, which mainly sells peanut butter and paste for use in processed foods. My favorite recalled food is “Herd of Laughter Tin Can Alley Ice Cream.” No one’s laughing now, obviously. The FDA has made their Peanut Corp. inspection report public [PDF]. Interpretation by yours truly and others indicates that the PCA did not have procedures for ensuring sufficient, pathogen-killing roasting of the raw peanuts, and did not adequately clean equipment after previous positive tests for salmonella. The rest of the report details various dirty parts of the plant (“the … rollers of this conveyor were covered with a slimy, black-brown residue,” “on 1/9/09 a live roach and several dead roaches were observed …”), as well as poor equipment layout and product storage. The origin of the salmonella is not clear from FDA or CDC materials.

Full story: http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2009/02/09/?source=food