Surprise: Peanut Plant's Private Food Inspector Rated Safety 'Superior'
Ah, the joys of the Randian free market! Go through the motions, use someone who doesn't know what they're doing, and make sure the plant has plenty of notice for the inspection. Why, it's a veritable recipe for disaster:
When food industry giants like Kellogg want to ensure that American consumers are being protected from contaminated products, they rely on private inspectors like Eugene A. Hatfield. So last spring Mr. Hatfield headed to the Peanut Corporation of America plant in southwest Georgia to make sure its chopped nuts, paste and peanut butter were safe to use in everything from granola bars to ice cream.
The peanut company, though, knew in advance that Mr. Hatfield was coming. He had less than a day to check the entire plant, which processed several million pounds of peanuts a month.
Mr. Hatfield, 66, an expert in fresh produce, was not aware that peanuts were readily susceptible to salmonella poisoning — which he was not required to test for anyway. And while Mr. Hatfield was inspecting the plant on behalf of Kellogg and other food companies, the Peanut Corporation was paying him for his efforts.
“The overall food safety level of this facility was considered to be: SUPERIOR,” he concluded in his March 27, 2008, report for his employer, the American Institute of Baking, which performs audits for major food companies. A copy of the audit was obtained by The New York Times.
Federal investigators later discovered that the dilapidated plant was ravaged by salmonella and had been shipping tainted peanuts and paste for at least nine months. But they were too late to prevent what has become one of the nation’s worst known outbreaks of food-borne disease in recent years, in which nine are believed to have died and an estimated 22,500 were sickened.
"Recipe" for disaster?
Heh. Indeed.
No, possible doub-entendre
Since recipe generally has one meaning.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Oopsie...
I'm not seeing double.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The real Bush legacy
"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.”
- John Stuart Mill
Bush's legacy of total corruption continues to unfold.....everything this man touched turned to $hit!
The Republican legacy.
"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.”
- John Stuart Mill
for mccain!!
food poisoning should be reclassified as Reagan Disease.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Reagan made major incursions into removing food safety regulations that benefited major corporations at the peril of consumers.
'Talk to the hand'
My ketchup plants are in full fruit now, from ones bearing clusters of little packets to others bearing giant 64oz tubs that will make any Smart and Final employee jealous...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Let's find out how much Mr. Hatfield was paid off for this superior rating. Obviously, this was the scenario which included a "tipoff" that the inspection was coming.
So much for random inspections! If they're not random, they're not worth the time it takes to do it.
I seriously doubt the inspector himself saw any "pay off". The pay off is built into the system between AIB, Yum Brands, etc and the producers. These inspections are always announced ahead of time and the plants spend weeks forging data and planing inspection routes to avoid issues. The inspection form itself is highly structured and available ahead of time to use as a guide. The companies and the system are broken but it wasn't one inspector doing the damage.
And it wasn't one peanut company - ever eat at McD's? BK? O'Briens from the grocery store? AIB inspects em all!
you are dangerously naive.
Naive? Fifteen years as a Quality Assurance Manager for one of the largest food products producers in the world left me a few things - but naive isn't one of them.
Today I blogged a syringe plant in North Carolina who sent out dirty syringes in 2007 to hospitals and doctors and the FDA knew about and failed to send in an inspector.
This is the lasting legacy of George W. Bush.
I'm begining to wonder if Wall Street is trying to hold Washington hostage with all their bad news.
Give us the money, just don't tell us how to use it.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Free money..........what a concept!
'Talk to the hand'
The Repugs always harp about the "free market" but their idea of free is free from regulation, free from paying their fair share in taxes, free from open and fair competetion and free to make you sick(and/or die) without consequences.
It's sad the there are actually people who are fooled by this bullshit party
and The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" was a real eye-opener, along with "Confessions of en Economic Hitman."
Your comment is right on target. What's amazing is the number of adherents the failed Freidman policies continue to have. BTW, Reagan totally embraced the Freidman model.
Yeah, the FDA never approves dangerous drugs and food.
Never.
Peanut butter always made me sick
Not allergic
Just hate the crap.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Never understood peoples taste for it. It really does taste like sh#T.
But I learned to appreciate it in jail. Better than the other option: going hungry.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
"Organic"
Enjoy this mornings poison whatever your breakfast is.
Scrambled egg whites and tofu bacon, and s**t-loads of black French Roast coffee.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
confidence game.
Does ET still like Reece's Pieces?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The End Is Near
this stuff with food recalls and import inspections and such you would faint.
Gardens!
I'd settle for a break even garden.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Of cannabis!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Sounds exactly like vaccine manufacture plants and FDA safety regulators
they are damaging our kids but no one will question the sacred cow until it happens to them
Thank you.
This has nothing to do with whether this happened because of private corruption or government corruption.
The company has been held accountable by the public. Their reputation is shot. They get no more funding from sales of their peanut butter. When will the FDA be held accountable for its failures and corruption?
I gotta tell this story again. Each week I buy two or three bags of roasted peanuts in the shell. I feed them to the birds and squirrels in my backyard. Several weeks before we heard anything about the tainted peanut butter, those bags of peanuts were taken off the shelf. When I asked why, the grocer guy said because someone had found rat parts in a bag of peanuts and they had all been recalled. I don't know if this had anything to do with the peanut butter/paste problem but it sure seems coincidental to me. If they are connected, that would mean that word was out about a peanut problem at least a month before the general public was informed.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
No one could have predicted that the invisible hand of the market would be holding a scythe.
Some good news for once:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/05/gupta....
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Guess that clears the way for Dr. Phil
If we could shake out all the crooks in business and in politics, would we have anyone left? I'm beginning to wonder.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Welcome to the GOP world of self-regulation!
whose paying Ken Star to argue for prop 8 in Cali?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
His mistress?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
as terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and smoking gun mushroom clouds.
But more likely to affect you than any of those.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddTBeNv9PwQ
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Sure, Randian Free Enterprise wouldn't guarantee effective regulation of the safety of food.
OTOH, Randian Government would seek to punish the executives responsible for the crime by prosecuting them. Likewise with the fraud who rated the food safety conditions at the plant SUPERIOR.
In fact we don't have either... we have an ineffective FDA, and no prosecution whatsoever.
What's peculiar is that in China the executives would be facing the death penalty.
Yay!!!
Someone gets it!!!!
I think the feud is back on. The Hatfields are still out to get the McCoys and we are the McCoys.
Now you know why Phelps was smoking dope. He was trying to alleviate some of the discomfort caused by the salmonella he had gotten from the Kelloggs' products he had consumed.
Proof that corporations have been getting away with murder, for hefty profits and should be shut down for good.
I just settled down for a nice breakfast of waffles with peanut butter and syrup drizzled on top and I feel totally OH MY LORD OH GOD OH GOD GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!!!
oh ... oh my god ... oh I think its almost over now ... I'll just drink some of this cold & flu syrup and that'll help me feel a little bit OH LORD OH GOD OH OH PLEASE IT BURNS IT BURNS OH MY ESOPHOGAS AND LIVER ARE BURNING INSIDE OF ME OH PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!
oh man. oh man, this is not good at ALL. I think I'm gonna be stuck in here all day. well at least I have some cheap valentines candy left over to help me tide the time. might as well munch on that. you know these made in China candies are really cute and clever, I love the way they paint on those ... ACK! ... ACK! ... OH GOD WHAT IS THIS I CAN'T BREATHE EVERYTHING IS GOING DIM!!1......
... please leave my car and my house to my children, they deserve the best that .... what??! what do you mean I have a simultaneous automotive recall and foreclosure?!!
*******
bigups to George W Bush's executive branch and the GOP Congress for hiring the best possible oversight team this nation has ever seen.
;)
...is that they shoot them who knowingly sell and ship contaminated food.
{OK, There you go.SiteMonitor}
Exactly how is it "violent" to state a fact about how the Peoples Republic of China enforces the death penalty against those convicted of knowingly selling and shipping contaminated food?
Is the Limbaugh Party now censoring Crooks and Liars comments? Are you aware that there is a death penalty imposed on people who are convicted of certain crimes in the United States? Is it "violent" to suggest we apply the same penalty to capitalist pigs who knowingly sell and ship contaminated food that kills innocent people?
Do you or do you not support free speech and the transmission of established facts?
{ I found it disturbing that you, as a progressive would advocate shooting someone. But it's your right to voice your opinion. I'll let the other people decide for themselves. SiteMonitor}
One of the things I like about China is their swift legal system that imposes the death penalty (where shooting is frequently employed) for egregious business behavior. This has led to some offenders committing Seppuku rather that face the shame of a public trial and execution. If only some of our criminals were so honorable.
What's with all this "Capitalist Pigs" crap? The same kind of thing happens in such bastions of "socialism" as China and Venezuela. You think it's any better there? Nonsense! Humans have been pulling crap like this since the dawn of time.
BTW, you are using a computer, sitting in a chair, and wearing clothes made by "capitalist pigs"...Grow up!
The Chinese are Capitalist pigs?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Capitalism is obsolete--it is dying, and the sooner we do away with capitalism, the better.
By the way, my chair, clothes and computer were made by socialists.
Those who "pull crap like this" are NOT humans--they are capitalist pigs.
Thinks she's Patty Hearst with the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Wow. a little gun happy. Got her finger on the trigger and she's gonna pull it.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
So because YOU personally found it disturbing that a progressive would advocate shooting someone, YOU personally decided to censor my post.
You are obviously NOT a progressive.
{ Before you shoot your mouth off again, You need to read this.
It's the commenting policy. This is a private site. Don't like it? Go somewhere else. I don't know many progressives who advocate executing someone. That puts you in a lesser category.. Now, read the commenting policy SiteMonitor}
but the Grand Old Peepee party's wonderful way of self regulation.
If you ever have a someone close to you that has been poisoned by one of these greedy SOB's then you too would want to shoot them. Have you ever sat by your child's bedside for a month while he's hooked up to a machine to breath because he took a bite of tainted peanut butter? All so these corporate fat-cats can make more money. After you do that - then you come and tell me that shooting these greedy people is not the right thing to do. Our system of fining these multi-billion dollar corporations a few thousand dollars is NOT doing a damn thing to stop this.
{No, I feel that Life in prison doing hard labor would be a better punishment. With out the possibility of parole. I can understand your feelings toward this, but I don't agree. SiteMonitor}
Criminals are not children who need to be spanked. They are threats to society who must be eliminated, some temporarily via confinement in jail or prison, and the more dangerous, such as habitual capitalist pigs, permanently by execution.
{ How do you know who is the most egregious offender? How would you know who carries the most guilt? Before you go off and execute someone, you'd better be damn sure that you have the right person. This isn't a open and closed case where the guilty would admit their guilt. You'd never be able to prove absolute guilt to any one person. Yes, you could prove that there would be a number of people who took part in it. But who gets the bullet? Now, it's up to you to decide who lives and who dies? Sorry, But that isn't good enough. And you're willing to execute
someone? That's sad. SiteMonitor}
...that's how our system of justice works.
Had the liberal progressives who founded the United States been like you, we would still be a British colony because nobody would be willing to kill the Brits and their colonial American stooges.
Being a milquetoast is not progressive; it will get you nowhere.
{Is that right? So, you think you're capable of deciding who lives and who dies now? Ay? Well, aren't you special. You need to go up thread and read. Your argument is asinine and adolescent. It's not that simple. Maybe it is for you. But not to thinking adults. Now, go up a few comments and read. SiteMonitor}
Ok, so when the non-free-market FDA approves a drug that it KNOWS to be harmful, like say Vioxx, that proves...what?
Well, we can't trust a competitor because there is no competition for the FDA. We have to trust, or not trust, the FDA.
http://www.naturalnews.com/021129.html
"oh...no one died today. We're good."
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Conservative control over the FDA encouraged the drug makers to market toxins-as-medicine.
If you want safe medicine and food, don't vote Republican!
Hatfield should have some of this safe peaunt paste
shoved down his throat and up his fucking incompetent
ass. he also, should be held responsible for the
deaths and poisonings from this bastard's imbecilic
criminal negligence.
Bet you that these Republican piles of whit have killed a whole lot more of us than what was discovered in this latest Republican scandal. There are probably thousands of people who die here and there across the US because of Republican treason of this level when it comes to food inspections.
...that's why more progressive nations such as Japan will not allow the importation of meat, eggs and some other foods from the U.S.
I would dearly love to see this guy face 'murder by depraved indifference' charges, it would give him a good long time in the Pen!
While working on the recall for some of the contaminated cookies I found a little girl about 4 OPENING a small snack sized bag her Mom had just bought her, I grabbed that thing quick, and handed the Mom the recall notice so she wouldn't think her daughter was being attacked by a mad woman. That poor women went to crying when she read the recall, she had been traveling and not heard about the recall. She said I could well have saved her daughter's life. At least I made sure she didn't become sick from the cookies.
is a totally specious argument. We have rules against the very things the SEC was suppose to prevent Madoff from getting away with, and yet it happened.
So the advocates of bigger bureaucracy need to consider the consequences of shifting limited resources to having government fix what is ultimately the problem of a private business. They should have the proper incentives to keep their customers from getting sick in the first place. Civil lawsuits from tens of thousands of sick customers and possibly government entities to recover medical bills, as well as from their suppliers who very well may be sued as well.
So they should raise their rates a bit, conduct the proper inspections, assuming they can even stay in business as a result of all this.
But the idea that government inspection would have prevented this is complete bull. It might have. But it might not have. What's the value of adding a substantial layer of bureaucracy to conduct inspections? Yes let's strengthen anti-fraud laws, and penalize companies who are committing fraud to such an extreme degree that they consider even attempting to get away with fraud might put them out of business. But bigger more expensive government isn't a solution.
reply
Just how do you find fraud if you don't have a way to detect it? Remember, conservitive republicans in line with their beliefs have either gutted various agencies charged with out safety or staffed them with people who did not believe in the job they were doing. So you can't say that a government inspection is bull. These guys have worked to remove layers of protection for American citizens. So we should be working to replace what has been removed. I don't know about you but I think we've seen the results of letting the "free market" handle food safety.
The vast majority of regulation and funding for that regulation is written by the industry to be regulated, because of the huge amount of money in politics. Corporations vote with money and they largely, not always, get what they want. Asking government to regulate, is asking industry to be the primary writer of the laws and regulations.
Do we need to regulate "don't poison your customers?" Seriously? And we need inspections for salmonella this time, because that's the current problem. But what about other obvious problems for which there aren't regulations? Or isn't enough money in government budgets, or is at the whim of politicians?
Why didn't the insurance company of these companies conduct their own inspections, to protect themselves? Are the companies or their insurance companies at risk of bankruptcy as a result of 22000+ claims filed against them?
In the case of the SEC and Madoff, it's not one of competency or staffing. They were warned. They ignored it. Why? We'll have to investigate to find out. Maybe someone was on the take. In any event, regulation doesn't always work. It can sometime even make things worse. So the knee jerk reaction to regulate at government and taxpayer expense when these companies should be watching after themselves and their customers, is without merit.
This episode could not have happened, because, as every good libertarian knows, the company would have been restrained by free market forces and self interest. You see, if you kill your customers, those customers will not continue buying your products, thus punishing you by going elsewhere to seek personal fulfillment through consumption. Just ask the tobacco industry.
I agree with Libertarians, we should eliminate the Nanny-State and allow corporations to intentionally sell poisoned products so they can kill small children. The FDA interferes with profits, and that MUST be stopped!
a plenty.
NOBODY 2012
The ONLY reason we had problems with the peanut butter was solely because Evil Big Communist Government oversees Valiant Innocent Corporations.
If there were NO FDA, there would never have been a problem with the peanut butter!
The peanut butter would have been perfectly safe if there never had been government inspectors.
In the perfect Conservative Republican / Ayn Rand Objectificationism world, it would be perfectly legal or corporations to sell products known to be contaminated. After a couple hundred children die from eating contaminated food, the Free Market would kick in and people would stop buying their product.
It's so obvious, people! A couple hundred dead kids is a small price to pay to keep Communism out of the Free Market! The Randist Conservative creed: Death to Communism, Poison the Children!
about a number of things. She did not argue against liability, or that fraud was OK. In this case, we may have manslaughter charges brought up on a number of people for their decisions, as well as fraud. There is is a real liability issue for the company and its insurance company and even its customers are liable. Why weren't those companies performing their own minimal match testing of products to make sure they were getting the quality they wanted? Perhaps they were and just weren't testing for salmonella?
Simply saying regulation would have prevented this from occurring is questionable, and at what expense? I don't support a whole new branch of bureaucracy just to test for salmonella in peanut butter.
Peanut butter is not an inherently fraudulent exercise, like say, banking. Banking is given the kiss of approval by government in the first place, an activity that's insolvent from day 1, and yet Republican whack jobs want to deregulate it. Insanity. And entirely different than a few dead people, tragic though it is, there aren't that many people affected.
I don't feel we need more regulation. I believe we need to enforce the regulations we already have. We need an army of FDA inspectors to fulfill the duties of that agency's mandate.
8 years of anti-government conservatism is to blame for that factory being grossly filthy for YEARS.
Many federal agencies between 2001 and 2009 saw their duties to be the opposite of previous administrations: protecting multi-national corporations from the wrath of the American people.
Conservatism in inhumane evil.
TW, love your handle.
The plant is closed. How many people died again?
9 dead and over 600 seriously ill (as of Feb 12, 2009) thanks to Conservatism and the 'Free Market'.
If it weren't for the Socialism of Regulations many many more would have died and nothing would have been done to stop them from intentionally poisoning citizens. That is what we reap from the totally evil Conservative Free Market - dead children.
Conservatism is Assholism writ large.
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