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A peanut processing plant in Texas run by the same company blamed for a national salmonella outbreak operated for years uninspected and unlicensed by government health officials.
The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview never was inspected until after the company fell under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to Texas health records obtained by AP.
Once inspectors learned about the Texas plant, they found no sign of salmonella there. But new details about that plant — including how it could have operated unlicensed for nearly four years — raise questions about the adequacy of government efforts to keep the nation’s food supply safe. Texas is among states where the FDA relies on state inspectors to oversee food safety.
Relying on Texas bureaucrats for safety? Har!
The salmonella outbreak was traced to the company’s sister plant in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold, a leaking roof and internal records of more than a dozen positive tests for salmonella…
In Texas, inspector Patrick Moore of the Department of State Health Services was sent to Plainview, in the sparsely populated Texas Panhandle, after salmonella was traced to the company’s plant in Georgia. Moore said the Texas plant wasn’t licensed with health officials and had never been inspected since it opened in March 2005. Texas requires food manufacturers to be licensed every two years and routinely inspected.
“I was not aware this plant was in operation and did not know (what) type of products processed,” Moore wrote in an inspection report obtained by AP.
Obviously, the Feds and Texas don’t give a damn about inspection standards and procedures. Surprised?
Hmmm.–unlicensed and uninspected and salmonella free for 4 years?
Sounds like licensing and inspection may cause salmonella outbreaks?
Seriously==I don’t mind it took a while to find an unlicensed business, thats is forgiveable in the big scheme of things.
What is not forgiveable is that the fines and followup action will not be sufficient to pursuade others not to do the same thing.
Such is the respect for business in america==even the Chinese do a better job.
i wonder how much in tax breaks this company got to set up shop there? now if you dont contribute taxes to the community, the community doesnt have the funds to run the inspections.. (get the idea now??)
oh wait lets apply this concept (or should it be called just a ‘con’ ??) to say schools? if the business dont contribute their fair share of taxes can then realy complain that the work force isnt educated enough? (uhm wait that is their idea… that way the can import lower wage workers from elsewhere, or move the company to elsewhere!)
let’s see, can we apply this to other aspects of short changed governments services???
hhhmmm i wonder what would put a stop to this…. say maybe a condition of all this bailout money is not more tax abatment, or reductions?? oh my… what a way to run a government..
Speaking of Texas and failed regulation … the ex-president sure fell of the planet. I haven’t heard a peep about him since the inauguration.
See what happens when you don’t have the government sticking getting underfoot all the time? You get safe food.
And people are griping about this?
One of two things happened. Ether the inspectors are taking bribes to keep quiet. Or the inspectors are not doing their jobs. Fire Them !!
Make them held criminally liable if found to have falsified or altered inspection reports or did not inspect as they were required by their job description. We call American’s proud workers but cases like this just makes us look like slackers!
#4, Loser,
How do we know all the product was safe?
There are not enough inspectors to do the job. Not even if you doubled the number of inspectors.
A major recall can put a company out of business. At the least it will cost a staggering amount of money and then those who lost money or suffered injury due to your mistakes may take you to court and demand compenstation. That is what makes most food companies want to avoid such events if at all possible.
Umm,
There are other ways tto get this to happen..
LIKE,
the OIL involved could have been contaminated..ITS NOT PEANUT OIL..
And the divine King, George Bush II decreed, “Hands off my bud’s Peanut Plant”. And so it was done. Nothing was said about whether this Texas plant met any other requirements. Like workers’ safety, or proper wages. There are other reasons why american businesses should be regulated, beside food safety. And this Texas plant obviously avoid them, to operate more profitably than its competitors. We might as well bring back slavery, in the name of corporate profits.
#6, Poison Twin,
The only way to ever show it was all good would be to test everything that came out of the factory. As that is feasibly impossible, your question is unknowable.
However, we can make a pretty good assumption. There are no reported illnesses tracked back to that factory so I would say they have a pretty good track record.
This sounds like some kinda “Bubba” deal to me, and I’ll be darned if I… hey, wait a minute, I am Bubba. So, where’s my check?
#10, Loser,
Again, we don’t know what steps this plant did take. As mentioned above, did they also comply with other regulations including unemployment insurance, workers comp., SSTs, sales taxes, etc? We also don’t know if any illness couldn’t be traced to this plant because it was unlicensed and thus off the radar.
Assumptions can be fatal in many cases.
#12, Poison Twin,
If the investigation for a death traced to a different plant across the country still ended up there, I am sure a death caused by something at this plant would have led there as well.
AFA the other looting, it doesn’t matter. If they paid it, the government bureaucracy lost them. If they didn’t pay it, seems those the laws were meant to “protect” didn’t much care about it.
Government got out of the way and this plant made a good product. What is so hard to accept about this?
#13, Loser,
Again, you are making an assumption with no facts.
But the government did not “get out of the way”. The company ran afoul of the laws meant to protect us all.
If they made good product and no one got sick then great. That is what manufacturers are supposed to do. Billions of products are produced everyday in this country where no one gets hurt and the product works just fine. It is not unique nor uncommon.
#14, Poison Twin,
Again, you are making an assumption with no facts.
Um, no I’m not. There have been no sicknesses traced to that plant.
There have been sicknesses traced to the government-owned plant.
The only assumption I am making is that if they could find the free plant based on problems at the government-owned plant, they could certainly find the free plant if it had its own problems.
Understand now?
But the government did not “get out of the way”.
Accepted.
They operated “as if” the government got out of the way.
Can you accept the fact there are no sicknesses traced to the plant?
If so, then it isn’t much of a leap of faith to assume that without government intervention, they could continue to operate as they have been — safely.
If they made good product and no one got sick then great. That is what manufacturers are supposed to do. Billions of products are produced everyday in this country where no one gets hurt and the product works just fine. It is not unique nor uncommon.
So what is the problem?
#15–Loser== The SAME COMPANY operated two plants–one licensed and inspected in Georgia was the source of salmonella poisoning across the USA.
WHAT IN YOUR FRIGGIN IMAGINATION thinks the public is “safe” with the same company running an unlicensed uninspected facility making the same products?
YOU got some kind of screw loose there. Does freedom in your mind mean free to produce food products without licensing?? Is that the nub???
Liebertarians. Nuts wanting freedom for peanut manufacturers. Hah, Hah!!!