Allen's Green Beans Are A Big Hit With Rats

Last year a Beaumont catering company found a rat head in a can of Allen's green beans. The same thing happened to a Utah woman and now it may have happened again. A New Braunfels (Texas) woman says she found the body of a rat in a can of Allen's Green Beans she was preparing for the Super Bowl. The Beaumont catering company wants to rally support to either boycott Allen's or file a class action lawsuit to get the plant cleaned up.

The woman from New Braunfels remembered a similar story from Beaumont. She decided to call the Beaumont business and her local news. The New Braunfels Wal-Mart agreed to take Allen's Green Beans off the shelves. The same thing that happened in Beaumont less than a year ago.



However, other stores across the country carry Allen's but Pamela Byrd doesn't think anything changed after she reported the rat head. So now three different people from three different places have something in common.


"Go to the plant. Inspect the plant. Find out what's going on. Obviously something is going on. This lady is from New Braunfels. Ms. Watson is from Utah. We're in Beaumont. Ok? Something is going on," said Pamela Byrd.

And all they want is something done about it.

Worker: I Saw A Rat Roasted In Peanuts

A former employee of the Georgia peanut plant at the center of a criminal investigation in a nationwide salmonella outbreak says he saw a rat dry-roasting in a peanut area.

Jonathan Prather was one of 50 people who lost their jobs last month when the Peanut Corporation of America shut down its plant in Blakely.
The outbreak is blamed in as many as eight deaths and has sickened some 500 people, authorities say. Many products made with peanut paste from the plant have been recalled.

In addition, a peanut processing plant in Texas run by the Virginia company blamed for the outbreak operated for years un-inspected and unlicensed by government health officials, The Associated Press has learned.

Prather describes a building in which roaches were a constant problem, saying, "Roaches get up there in the dry roast. Some of them blend in with the peanuts. You'd never know they're there."

Health inspectors also noticed roaches as they searched for the source of the salmonella, saying, "A live roach and several dead roaches were observed in the firm's wash room."

But, three or four months ago, Prather says, he saw the rat "dry roasting in the peanuts."

He says he also frequently saw rat droppings in the area where peanut products were made, where Prather worked.

Health inspectors say they found "gaping" holes in walls, but didn't report evidence of rodents or droppings. They did find holes elsewhere, saying, "There were open gaps observed as large as ... two-and-a-half feet at the air conditioner intakes located in the roof of the firm."

Prather says there were "plenty of holes in the roof, throughout the roof. And when it rained, water just came through the whole plant."

Mold was also spotted by investigators, as were mops washed in the same sink as peanut product production equipment, Glor points out.
"Any of these alleged violations," Glor says, "could be the source of salmonella, which the company's own documents say was discovered at least a dozen times. Peanut Corporation of America is accused of retesting the samples, "lab shopping," until it got favorable results."

Prather says it saddens him that many people have been impacted by the salmonella, adding he's speaking out now.

Kung Pao "Mouse"

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 EL PASO, Texas -- Lin's Buffet in El Paso, Texas, hasn't re-opened its doors since a woman claimed she found a mouse in her food.

Health inspectors conducted an unannounced inspection, which the restaurant failed, EL Paso station KFOX reported.

Food inspectors said the restaurant will not open until all violations are corrected. Authorities investigated after Maria Gonzalez reported she found a mouse in her food on Friday night.

"I saw its tail and I started throwing up," Gonzalez said.

According to the Health Department's Web site, Lin's has failed six food inspections in eight months.

"Just knowing that mice carry so many diseases. Even if it's cooked and everything...but," Gonzalez said.

A Lin's manager claimed Gonzalez may have put the mouse on her food.