Claims totaling $202 million had been filed Thursday against the Peanut Corporation of America in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Lynchburg, as next Monday’s deadline for filing claims approached.

The proposal was introduced after the salmonella outbreak was linked to the Peanut Corp. plant in Blakely

Peanut Corporation of America president Stewart Parnell refused to answer questions about his company’s operations during a two-hour hearing this morning held to determine the firm’s assets.

Food banks say they use more manpower to sort through the boxes of food.

Friends of Stewart Parnell said the executive’s character is most accurately defined by his kind nature, not by the nightly newscasts about his company

Slim-Fast optima® caramel crispy peanut MEAL on-the-go® bars, Slim-Fast MEAL OPTIONS® Breakfast & Lunch Bars – Dutch Chocolateflavor, and Slim-Fast MEAL OPTIONS® Breakfast & Lunch Bars – Peanut Butter flavor being recalled

The filing lists between 100-199 creditors, and Peanut Corp. owing between $1 million to $10 million

The plaintiffs include the families of several victims represented by a Georgia-based law firm, a Virginia man who said he is still sick, and a prison inmate who hand-wrote a legal complaint after becoming sick with salmonella

Some say new information about the Suffolk plant, along with Wednesday’s testimony on capitol hill, has caused the case to take a severe turn.

One investigator saw mouse droppings in one warehouse and a bird flitting around in another.

The Department of Agriculture says Virginia peanuts are safe to eat.

The Virginia Dept. of Health says the coverage of the peanut salmonella outbreak is good because it is creating awareness among people in our local communities of foods they should be cautious about eating.

“Virginia peanuts, because of their superior quality, are generally sold as shelled or in-shell peanuts, and these products are safe to eat. They have not been implicated in the recent recall of manufactured products using peanut paste from a single supplier.”