FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA

February 11, 2009

Dear International Colleagues,

As you are probably aware, the United States is presently experiencing an outbreak of clinical disease caused by Salmonella Typhimurium associated with products manufactured at the Peanut Corporation of America's (PCA) manufacturing plant in our state of Georgia.  To date, it appears that the great majority of distribution of consumer products made with potentially contaminated materials from this plant has been in the United States with primary distribution to only a few countries.

However, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to trace-forward the secondary and tertiary distribution of consumer products made by other companies with potentially contaminated product from PCA, further recalls of various products made with such PCA recalled material have occurred.  As we become aware of distribution outside the United States of products that have been recalled in the United States, FDA, through its Office of International Programs (FDA/OIP), is immediately providing information through electronic means to our international regulatory counterparts or their embassies in Washington about these products.  Given the significant public health impact of this outbreak, these notifications are provided directly to the senior officials of our counterpart regulatory agencies, to technical counterparts, and/or to the embassy of the country involved.  In addition, FDA is providing the World Health Organization’s INFOSAN with periodic updates of our international notifications.

At present several hundred products are involved.  Because this is an on-going investigation and this company’s products were widely used as ingredients in other products, the number of recalled products continues to rise.  In light of this, I also want to provide you with the link to the FDA web page dedicated to this outbreak, Recall of Peanut-Containing Products:  Salmonella Typhimurium, which is updated daily: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html.  The web page includes a user-friendly, searchable database for products recalled in the United States. 

If you have additional questions, or require any assistance, please contact Ms. Vashti Klein from the FDA/OIP at International@fda.hhs.gov.

FDA Home Page | Search FDA Site | FDA A-Z Index | Contact FDA | Privacy | Accessibility

FDA Website Management Staff