Food and Drug Administration officials Friday reported that Peanut Corp's plant in Blakely, Georgia, 'consciously' shipped some contaminated peanut butter products, prior to the second confirmation test for salmonella, and sold others even after the confirmation of the bacteria.

Though there was no official announcement by the FDA in this regard, the findings became public as a result of a chance discovery, of FDA's minor revisions to its online report about the investigation on Thursday, by a Washington Post reporter.

Earlier, the company is said to have told the FDA investigators that some batches of peanut butter had primarily tested salmonella positive, but later retested negative, before they were shipped.

However, in the revised report FDA said that the company had, in fact, knowingly shipped some batches of peanut butter even before the completion of the second tests! In addition, some other lots were shipped either without any testing at all, or without a second test despite the first being positive.

A criminal investigation against Peanut Corp has been initiated by the Justice Department. The company, however, has denied any misdemeanor with respect to the salmonella outbreak that claimed eight lives and sickened 575 people in 43 states.

Cautioning the company about dire consequences, Seattle attorney William Marler, who is representing the affected people, said: "I hope these guys have good criminal defense lawyers!" (Harkiran contributed to this report)