UPDATE 2-US stops more Canada canola meal with salmonella

* Shipments suspected of having harmful bacteria

* Earlier, FDA had stopped shipment from same Bunge plant

* Bunge products face greater scrutiny at border

* Bunge says shipments stopped because of origin

(Adds Bunge comment, market impact)

By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Oct 6 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators refused 13 shipments of Canadian canola meal in August and September from Bunge Ltd (BG.N) plants on suspicion of salmonella contamination, U.S. Food and Drug Administration records showed.

Twelve shipments came from a Bunge plant in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. The other originated in Altona, Manitoba. Bunge's 13 halted canola meal shipments in August and September are the most in any two-month period this year.

Bunge spokeswoman Deb Seidel said via email that the shipments never tested positive for salmonella contamination but were refused because they were processed in Nipawin, where salmonella-contaminated shipments originated in the spring.

Bunge has been on import-alert status since May, an FDA action that places shipments from certain companies under greater border scrutiny. When the FDA notified Bunge its Nipawin facility was on import-alert status, the shipments in question were already en route to the United States or in the country, Seidel said.

Bunge then halted additional shipments from Nipawin to the United States, she said. Seidel did not say why shipments from the plant were entering or in the United States three to four months after the FDA placed it on import-alert status in May.

FDA spokespersons didn't return messages seeking comment.

The canola industry in Canada, the world's top exporter of the oilseed, has said the FDA is cracking down on salmonella because of illness outbreaks since 2006 involving lettuce, peppers, peanuts and spinach contaminated with the bacteria.

Salmonella contamination sickened more than 700 people in 46 U.S. states this year, forcing the largest food recall in U.S. history [ID:nN06298941].

Most of canola's value comes from use of its oil for cooking oil and biofuel. The meal is a byproduct used in animal feed, and the industry has said salmonella in animal feed does not pose the same risk to humans as bacteria in food.

The FDA disagrees about meal, but it has not flagged canola oil for salmonella contamination.