Salmonella bill passes in the Georgia Senate
(AP) -- The Georgia Senate has unanimously passed a bill to toughen up the state's food safety laws in response to the deadly salmonella outbreak linked to a Blakely, Georgia, peanut plant.
The legislation would require food makers to alert state inspectors within 24 hours if a plant's internal tests show its
products are contaminated. The measure passed the state Senate 50 to 0 on Wednesday. It now moves to the House. The bill's sponsor, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Bulloch, said that if the bill had been in place it would have
raised a red flag at the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Georgia.
Investigators say the Lynchburg, Va.-based company knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products even after internal tests showed they were contaminated.
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