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The peanut-processing company at the center of a salmonella outbreak linked to nine deaths and at least 637 illnesses filed for bankruptcy protection Friday.

Peanut Corp. of America’s bankruptcy lawyer said the company had “no alternative” but to stop operations and liquidate. Andrew S. Goldstein, , a partner at Magee, Foster, Goldstein & Sayers, a Roanoke, Va. law firm, said Peanut Corp. was “operating well” before the outbreak, but that changed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture banned it from doing business with the government and government contractors. “They basically were unable to conduct any business,” said Mr. Goldstein.

The company filed under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code in federal bankruptcy court in Lynchburg, Va., where the company is based. Chapter 7 allows an orderly liquidation and payment of creditors. In its filing, Peanut Corp. listed 177 creditors, and estimated both assets and liabilities at between $1 million and $10 million.

Mr. Goldstein said that the last Peanut Corp. plant, in Suffolk, Va., has stopped operating. Peanut Corp. last month shuttered its plant in Blakely, Ga., identified as the source of the recent outbreak, and closed a plant in Plainview, Texas, earlier this week after initial tests came back positive for salmonella.

Stewart Parnell, Peanut Corp.’s president, signed the bankruptcy filing on Thursday, a day after appearing before a congressional committee where he repeatedly cited his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Mr. Parnell, the owner of the company, is not filing for personal bankruptcy, Mr. Goldstein said.

Food and Drug Administration officials have accused the company of knowingly shipping peanut products contaminated with salmonella, and the FDA and Justice Department have begun a criminal investigation.

Emails released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee showed that Peanut Corp. has had salmonella problems at the Blakely plant for at least three years. At one point, the documents show, Mr. Parnell ordered the company to ship products that had tested positive for salmonella.

Peanut Corp. supplied peanut butter to hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions. It also sold peanut butter and peanut paste to other companies that made products ranging from cookies and crackers to snack bars and pet food. So far, over 2,060 products have been recalled, and the number will likely grow. On Thursday, Texas health officials recalled all products made at Peanut Corp.’s Texas plant after finding dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers.