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sarah gilbert
In recent days, news reports of salmonella-tainted peanut butter have been splashed across blogs and websites. The list of recalled items is now over 100 products long and continues to grow daily. Last Friday, we learned that recalls include the Lara, Luna and CLIF bars, snacks and organic treats many people assume are fairly healthy.
It's now being reported that the Georgia plant from which all the recalled peanut butter originated knew that the peanut butter they were shipping was contaminated. In fact, they knowingly shipped bad product 12 times over the last two years. The Peanut Corporation of America frequently tests their products prior to distribution, but they aren't required to share those test results with state or federal regulators.
It seems outrageous that a company would test their products to ensure safety and then not be required to report the findings to a state or federal regulator. This is especially remarkable given the iconic and ubiquitous nature of the product (peanut butter!), although in light of recent news about BPA, U. S. consumer protections appear to be in name only.
According to the Washington Post, the company offered only an emailed statement as a response, stating it had "cooperated fully with FDA from day one during this investigation... " cold comfort given the FDA admits to being so dramatically understaffed that they were only able to inspect 6,000 out of the 65,000 operational food production plants in the U.S. last year. Perhaps it's a wonder nothing worse has happened yet.
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And about half of all corn syrup tested has mercury. But hey, according to the Libertarians, we don't need the FDA! The market will police itself!
I know this totally sounds naive, but putting profit before people's health—more critically, kids' health—is just wrong. You'd think knowingly releasing potentially allergenic—and, hello, potentially LETHAL—tainted peanut butter to the public would carry some very serious legal ramifications. Understaffed or not, shame on the FDA!