Salmonella victims' families angered by FDA report

Peanuts
Contaminated peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America is blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak, which has sickened more than 800 people. Three Minnesotans died after eating tainted peanut butter.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

(AP) - Relatives of two Minnesotans who died in the nationwide salmonella outbreak say they're appalled by what they're hearing about a Georgia plant identified as the source.

The Food and Drug Administration says managers at the Peanut Corporation of America plant continued shipping product after at least 12 internal tests for salmonella came back positive in the past two years.

The FDA says the company never cleaned production lines, and it re-tested and shipped some product when the new tests came back negative.

Tammy Myran's 87-year-old mother, Doris Flatgard, died Jan. 4 after eating tainted peanut butter at a Brainerd assisted living facility. Myran calls it "incomprehensible" that someone would run a business that way.

Jeff Almer's mother lived at the same facility and died after eating tainted peanut butter. Alme says the conduct "seems criminal."

Peanut Corp. has said it believes the FDA's report has some inaccuracies. The company didn't immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

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