Finally, some good may come from peanut recall

February 4, 11:15 AMFood ExaminerEric Burkett

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The Associated Press is reporting now that Peanut Corporation of America, the company that owns the Blakely, Ga., plant from where the current wave of salmonella contamination stems, has been operating its second plant in Plainview, Texas without a license. Apparently, it was only inspected after news of the contamination from the Blakely plant broke.

So far, there have been no links to the Texas plant in the current outbreak, but this is nothing shy of amazing. If you remember, PCA’s Blakely, Ga., plant conducted 12 salmonella tests over two years, failing each of them. Each time, they retested themselves until they got a better reading, and then shipped out the potentially contaminated peanut butter and paste, anyway. At no point during that two year period did plant officials ever seek to decontaminate the facility, or make repairs to the building, which might have helped avoid the contamination to begin with.

Now, a story from the Chicago Tribune reports the plant was overrun with roaches, mice, and mold. Holes in the roof lead to standing puddles on the plant floor when it rained, and whatever cleaning was done was done by people who weren’t trained to do so.

What do we have to show for this? Eight people have died, 120 people have been hospitalized, more than 500 have been sickened, and about 800 products have been recalled. There’s no telling how many jobs nationwide have been put on hold or reduced as a result of the recalls, but 50 people in Blakely – a town of 5,300 in rural Georgia – are now out of work. That’s on top of a recent loss of 100 jobs at the local Georgia-Pacific plant. I suspect a number of Texans may find themselves collecting unemployment before much longer, as well.

Why? Greed, evidently. By cutting corners on basic hygiene and food safety, PCA apparently hoped to improve their bottom line. Mind you, this all took place in a facility where people earned $6.55 an hour and didn’t blow the whistle on their employer in fear of losing their jobs (although, tellingly, one former employee noted he never allowed his own family to eat the plant’s product).

While the federal government pursues criminal charges against Peanut Corp., more and more of the glaring holes in the FDA’s safety and recall network are becoming apparent. They’re the same problems the FDA has faced over all the previous recalls, including a lovely provision that means the FDA can’t order a recall of a product without the responsible company’s permission.

There is one good thing coming out of all this: President Obama is now promising a complete review of FDA operations. Finally.