Peanut Plant Knew Product Was Tainted with Salmonella

Until there is criminal accountability for the fraud generated by CEO

I'm not a lawyer, but the FFDCA imposes strict liability standards. I can't say for sure if there is a technical violation of the Act, although I feel there probably is. If so, the CEO is guilty. Just like with statutory rape, intent and circumstances don't matter.

There have even been cases where the company was found innocent and the CEO guilty, and those verdicts have survived multiple Supreme Court challenges. If they put a misbranded or adulterated food into interstate commerce, this is a criminal not civil matter. Those take a long a time, as Justice will make sure every i is dotted and t is crossed before they go before the court.

waukone is exactly right. The current penalties for these so-called white collar crimes are so meaningless that there's no real incentive to follow the law. Lie, cheat, embezzle, defraud, whatever. What's the worst that'll happen? You lose your job (but still get a golden parachute) and have to pay a small fine? Whatever. The odds say that the actual punishment will be a lot closer to nothing.

That's precisely it, checker. There are little or no consequences to fraudulent and criminal activity that destroys people's lives and health. Look at Wall St, today, being chastised by Obama for their profligacy once again. They think it's just business as usual. I don't know whether harsher penalities would clear up the problem, even the death penalty in China doesn't stop ruthless people from poisoning babies. There's mercury in corn syrup, GMO foods everywhere unlabelled. Corporatism has seized political control, and it's time to take that power back.

It sure would!

Anything like this should carry a death penalty if they killed someone!

I'd be fired and sued if I spit in a sandwich at McDs, but it's OK for someone to die or spend months in the Hospital?!

But they would also ship none the less and that's exactly what these fools did.

We don't need business regulated let the buyer beware.

We don't need business regulated let the buyer beware.

Beware that a company is so selfish and greedy that it would knowingly ship a product of which they knew was dangerous to those who ingested it? Were you being sarcastic or sadistic?

Beware that a company is so selfish and greedy that it would knowingly ship a product of which they knew was dangerous

Pinto.

The Ford Company did a cost analyse and figure that it was cheaper to go to court or pay off the familes then fix the problem so what if a few people died in a fire because of a faulty disign that was easily fixed with a part that cost less then $25.00

Peanut Butter.

The company knew that it was cheaper to pay the fines then fix the problem.

Were you being sarcastic or sadistic?

Sarcastic. *rolleyes* I thought it was plain to see.

or sadistic?

I was having a GOP moment of less government is the answer to all the problems in the country.

Pardon me, I stand corrected...

The company knew that it was cheaper to pay the fines then fix the problem.

This is a sad day in American history, this country is falling apart because of the greed of our society. What kind of business institution would make a decayed moral decision like this?

I know, this isn't the only one, there are more.

There sure are more, like the mercury in corn syrup, and even melamine in baby formula made in the US.

There sure are more, like the mercury in corn syrup

I posted a contrary view on this to my column. You may want to take a look at it before jumping off the deep end on that one: it appears the media might have overblown that whole finding to drive up ratings. Perhaps not, but it might be worth looking at the other side's view calmly as well.

Rush Limbaugh is far from being the only sensationalist out there, after all.

OK, AA, I shall.

We certainly cannot blame this one on lax Mexican or Chinese regulation. The audacity of this company is staggering. Their own tests indicated salmonella contamination 12 times! And one of their responses was to shop for testing that would yield favorable results.

Organic tomatoes had a major salmonela outbreak a while back: it turns out that frogs from the farm pond would come out at night and catch pests in the tomato crop. Salmonela is endemic amongst frogs.

You aren't safe from diseases. You can't be, even if no modern farming techniques are used at all.

You aren't safe from diseases. You can't be, even if no modern farming techniques are used at all.

Risk can approach zero, but risk can never be zero.

You can wash the frog poop off the tomato before you eat it; you can't wash salmonella out from the inside of a peanut butter cracker or cookie.

Ah, but can you wash it out of the organic tomato juice, or salsa fresca? How about what happens once the bug gets from the tomatoes to other vegetables at the warehouse?

Diet won't help you, and as I have pointed out before the FDA simply isn't given the funds to inspect every single facility. And it doesn't matter which party is in charge: the costs of doing so would be astronomical.

amen to that

Which would still come no where close to inspecting a majority of the registered establishments, it may be noted.

Which would still come no where close to inspecting a majority of the registered establishments, it may be noted.

Which just shows the sad state we're in regarding food safety. We can drum up more support for a war in some foreign land than we can for safeguarding the safety of the stuff we put into our own bodies every day.

I think the problem with inspection is that it just doesn't scale: there are too many food producers and too many third parties who handle the food before it gets on my plate. I personally think the fix is not going to come from universal inspection: it's going to be from universal accountability through a HAACP type program.

Inspection could be improved, however, if FDA were allowed to adopt USDA's approach: inspectors are required on the premises of every meat producer, and those inspectors are paid for directly by the producer, not through the appropriations process. It would definitely increase the cost of food, though.