The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun a criminal investigation of the company responsible for the recent salmonella outbreak caused by peanut butter and peanut paste which sickened hundreds and was said to be cause of eight deaths. 

Working with the Justice Department, the FDA is looking into possible criminal charges against the Peanut Corporation of America of Lynchburg, Va., the company that manufactured the contaminated peanut butter at it’s plant in Blakely, Ga. Federal officials said the company knowingly shipped out tainted peanut products which had tested positive for salmonella.

The Justice Department would be responsible for prosecuting the cases. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Friday to determine whether the state has jurisdiction to investigate the plant.

“There is a criminal investigation that has been initiated through our office of criminal investigation at the FDA. They have to work through the Department of Justice to develop a case and prosecute, if that's what it comes to," said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "It's an open investigation."

The investigation, say experts, could result in misdemeanor or felony charges against the company. "Under the food safety law, if you ship an adulterated food in interstate commerce, that violates one of the so-called prohibited acts and can be prosecuted criminally," said Michael R. Taylor of George Washington University, a former FDA food safety official. "Food can be considered adulterated if it is produced under unsanitary conditions."

Every misdemeanor carries a $1,000 fine and one year in jail while a felony carries a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. This shows the need for stricter penalties. "The penalties are relatively light," he said. "If the facts are true as have been reported, you have a company that was knowingly and recklessly shipping products from a facility known to be contaminated with salmonella, sending over 100 people to the hospital and killing as many as eight," he said. "The question is whether the criminal remedies in the Food and Drug Act are sufficient, given the severity of the harm."

The result has been the call for stricter norms and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday that President Obama plans "in coming days" to name a new FDA commissioner and other officials responsible for consumer protection who will establish a "stricter regulatory structure to ensure that the type of thing that happened in this case doesn't happen again."

"I think the revelations have no doubt been alarming," Gibbs said, and "beyond disturbing for millions of parents."

The FDA said that in April 2008 metal fragments were found in a shipment of chopped peanuts sent to Canada. The shipment described as "filthy and putrid," was rejected in Canada and returned to the Peanut Corp. of America in Blakely, where federal officials ordered that the entire shipment be destroyed.

Domenic Veneziano, director of import operations and policy for the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, said, "The shipment was rejected from Canada and imported back to the U.S. and PCA. They tried to recondition the shipment ... and clean it up, and it could not be done. ... The FDA went out and witnessed that shipment ... and ensured that it was destroyed."

On Thursday, the FDA significantly expanded the product recall to more than 400 products asking stores, manufacturers and consumers to throw out every item made in the past two years from peanuts processed by the Peanut Corporation of America's Georgia plant.

The FDA insisted that national brand peanut butter sold in supermarkets is safe and not included in the recall. However, officials said that some "boutique" brands made in-house by retailers could contain products supplied by Peanut Corp.

"We know that some stores will purchase peanuts and grind them and sell them at retail," said Dr. Sundlof. "Now with the expanded recall, it is possible, and we certainly don't have any direct evidence, that those nuts may have been purchased and ground by certain stores and boutiques into their own brand."