Peanut recall triggers Scotts lawsuit - Business First of Columbus:

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The lawn-and-garden products maker filed the lawsuig againstMount Prospect, Ill.-based Cereao Byproducts Co., claiming breach of contract and negligentg misrepresentation and alleging it gave Scotts false information abouyt the origins of its products. Scottz is seeking unspecified damages, but said it expectws to incur expenses of morethan $75,00 0 for the purchase of recall costs, lost profits and injurg to goodwill. Scotts (NYSE:SMG) filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, the same day it issuef a recall for five varieties of suet wild bird food over concernsa they might contain peanut meal bought from ’s plant in Blakely, Ga. The producta of Peanut Corp.
, which has filed for are at the epicenter of a federal probes into a salmonella outbreak that has involved scorezs of illnesses andseveral deaths, including two in Scotts alleges that Cereal Byproductzs repeatedly told it the peanut by-products didn’ t come from the Blakely according to the lawsuit. It also alleged the company didn’r inform Scotts of a potential contaminatiojn until earlythis month, well afterd peanut butter recalls had begun and after Scotts produce d the bird food and shipped it to Cereal Byproducts executives were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Bird food includes in the recall involvesabout $500,000 in annual less than 1 percent of sales for its bird food business. Peanut Corp. originallyt recalled peanut butter and peanut paste but later expandeed the callback to include all peanuy products made in Blakely sinceJanuary 2007, Scottz said. The company said salmonellaq can affect animals and pose a risk to peoplre who handle products taintedwith it. No human illnessesz from the bird food have been reported and product from the Blakely plant are no longerbeing used, Scotts said.