U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that it has suspended the food facility registration of Sunland Inc. The company is being investigated by the FDA after the agency found that products from the facility had caused illness in 41 people in 20 states in the U.S.

"The fact that peanut butter made by the company has been linked to an outbreak of Salmonella Bredeney that has sickened 41 people in 20 states, coupled with Sunland's history of violations led FDA to make the decision to suspend the company's registration," FDA said in a statement.

Recently, FDA had announced that it had found that certain samples from Sunland Inc. nut butter production facility had showed presence of Salmonella.

This is the first time that the FDA has used its powers to suspend a company's registration using the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The Act allows the agency to take action against companies when food manufactured, packaged, held or received at a facility has "a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, and other conditions are met."

Sunland Inc. said on November 15, 2012 that it has never distributed products that weren't safe to consume.

"At no time in its twenty four year history has Sunland, Inc. released for distribution any products that it knew to be potentially contaminated with harmful microorganisms," said Jimmie Shearer President and CEO Sunland Inc., in a statement. "In every instance where test results indicated the presence of a contaminant, the implicated product was destroyed and not released for distribution."

A list of all Sunland products that have been recalled in the U.S. can be found here.

FDA also said that consumers must not eat the recalled products, especially those people who have a weak immune system or are below age five.

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