Peanut recall grows as feds find problems at plant

[Bob Hubbard]

Peanut recall grows as feds find problems at plant


By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers
Wednesday, January 28, 2009


(01-28) 18:12 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
The salmonella outbreak spawned one of the largest ever product recalls Wednesday by a Georgia peanut plant where federal inspectors reported finding roaches, mold, a leaking roof and other sanitary problems.


Managers at the Blakely, Ga. plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America continued shipping peanut products even after they were found to contain salmonella.


Peanut Corp. expanded its recall Wednesday to all peanut products produced at the plant since Jan. 1, 2007. The company is relatively small, but its peanut paste is an ingredient in hundreds of other food products, from ice cream, to Asian-style sauces, to dog biscuits. Major national brands of peanut butter are not affected.


A senior lawmaker in Congress and Georgia's agriculture commissioner called for a criminal investigation of the company, but the Food and Drug Administration said such a step is premature while its own food safety investigation continues.


More than 500 people have gotten sick in the outbreak and at least eight may have died as a result of salmonella infection. More than 400 products have already been recalled. The plant has stopped all production.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/27/national/w143430S41.DTL

 

[tellner]

This underlines one of the big problems with the doctrine of self-regulation. If there's money to be made someone will cut corners. There needs to be independent oversight, especially in areas where lives are at stake. We learned this lesson when Teddy Roosevelt was President. It may be time to learn it again.

 

[David Weatherly]

Time for people to start paying more attention to food sources and what's going on with the "processing"

 

[Makalakumu]

Unfortunately, our regulating bodies don't work to well either. They are so understaffed and underfunded that there is no way they can watch everyone. Also, and even worse, these same regulating bodies are headed up by industry insiders that use the position as a weapon against competition while looking the other way on the corporations they came from. This revolving door of corruption will ensure that NO Federal regulation will ever be fair or effective. The FDA and the EPA are the worse offenders.

 

[Gordon Nore]

This underlines one of the big problems with the doctrine of self-regulation. If there's money to be made someone will cut corners. There needs to be independent oversight, especially in areas where lives are at stake. We learned this lesson when Teddy Roosevelt was President. It may be time to learn it again.

We're still learning this lesson here. The Maple Leaf meat company scandal involved sandwich meat products with listeria.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/09/10/listeria-ontario.html

Several years back, provincial deregulation and incompetent municipal management led to water supply in Walkerton, Ontario that was tainted with E. coli. Many more people would have sick become or dead, were it not for an alert ER resident who twigged on that she had two kids from the school with vomiting and diarrhea. Apparently the guy who as supposed to be monitoring the water was somebody's brother and kept a beer fridge at work.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/09/10/listeria-ontario.html

Big brother can watch my water, food and air all wants.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I make my own nut butters. fresher, tastier, safer.