Salmonella Poisoning From Peanuts Killed Jeff Almer's Mother After She Beat Cancer

My Mom Beat Brain Cancer Only To Die 'From Simply Eating Peanut Butter'

More than 48 million Americans become sick from contaminated food each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those cases, more than 100,000 people require hospitalization and 3,000 die. One of those victims was Jeff Almer's mother, Shirley Mae Almer, who died after eating peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella.

"She had beaten brain cancer ... and, you know, to beat brain cancer and die from simply eating peanut butter is just inexcusable," Jeff Almer told HuffPost Live host Nancy Redd on Monday.

"We were cheated of time with her and we'll never know how much time we had on this earth with her because her life was taken by greed and negligence of a company," Almer continued.

Almer's mother was one of many victims of a Salmonella outbreak traced to the the Peanut Corporation of America's processing facility in Blakely, Ga. The company later declared bankruptcy in February of 2009

In his interview with HuffPost Live, Almer said he is still waiting to see someone held accountable for his mother's death as the investigation into the 2008 outbreak is still ongoing.

Dr. Richard Williams, who worked with the Food and Drug Administration for 27 years, says not enough is being done to avoid future outbreaks.

"Hearing these stories about people that have been ill and that have lost family members -- it only emphasizes the frustration I felt over 27 years with how little progress we actually were able to make in reducing food-borne diseases," Williams told HuffPost Live.

"If plants know they're going to be held accountable for producing contaminated foods," he continued, "they're going to go all the way back in their supply chain and they're going to make sure that food isn't contaminated."

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