Activities

Members Get Update on Peanut Butter Recalls from CFSAN Director Sundlof at January Luncheon

On January 30, 2009, approximately 40 people gathered at the Far East Restaurant (Rockville, MD) for the regularly scheduled FDAAA luncheon and were treated to an overabundant supply of delicious Chinese cuisine.

 

After the feast, Dr. Alan Andersen welcomed the newest member of FDAAA (the 780th) as Dr. Stuart Nightingale. Dr. Mary Ann Finley then introduced the guest speaker, Dr. Stephen Sundlof, Director CFSAN. His presentation dealt with the contaminated 'peanut butter' outbreak

Dr. Sundlof has been delegated with the daunting task of serving as THE spokesperson for FDA on any/all 'peanut butter' issues and questions raised by the Federal Agencies, Capitol Hill, State governments, other countries, industry, reporters, and the general public (to name a few). One of the most frequent questions asked is why has it taken FDA so long to get a handle on this contaminated 'peanut butter' outbreak and provide appropriate information. Dr. Sundlof said that many people do not have a clear understanding of the process or evolution of an outbreak. There are normal lag times from when the outbreak of illnesses actually starts (people being affected), until sufficient information is obtained to identify the outbreak as a single incident and then to identify the probable cause (e.g., biological or chemical), food product, and source (provider). He described the approximate evolution of the 'peanut butter' outbreak as follows - illnesses started in September; recognized as a possible contaminated 'peanut butter' incident by CDC in November; suspected Salmonella typhimurium was involved toward end of December based on finding in an open container; confirmed January 19th with a finding of S. typhimurium in an unopened container; at that time FDA was already at the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) having identified that plant as the likely source production facility, identified its peanut butter and peanut paste as the primary items contaminated, and began issuing food recall lists. From experiences gained in previous food illness outbreaks, the FDA has addressed this 'peanut butter' outbreak using a newly developed emergency outbreak response program called "Incident Command System". Dr. Sundlof concluded by saying that dealing with this outbreak is still ongoing and may become the FDA's largest food related recall.

In the "Questions/Answers" some additional information was provided by Dr. Sundlof:

  • International exposure to the contaminated 'peanut butter', including food items for military, is under investigation.
  • Since another peanut butter producing plant was located in the same general region as the Peanut Corporation of America (Georgia), an important but yet unanswered question is whether there were common workers in those two plants, who could have carried the Salmonella bacteria. One of the luncheon attendees referred to such a person as "Salmonella Sally".
  • In response to a question about the Georgia State labs and the arrangements with FDA to inspect the PCA food producing facility, Dr. Sundlof spoke about State laboratories not having sufficient funds to provide the type of data needed to support regulatory actions by FDA. He suggested that, if FDA could establish a grant funding program with State laboratories, this would enable State labs to provide the types of laboratory data FDA needs to regulate food producing/processing facilities and would generally be beneficial to the general economy.
  • Finally, an attendee pointed out that Dr. Sundlof's car license plate was "CVM 1", when he was Director of CVM. What does it say now? ... "FDA Food".

Submitted, Thomas J. Sobotka, Ph.D.