How Many Ways Does This Peanut Butter Thing Stink?

The deeper that the FDA and others are looking into this peanut butter mess, the worse this thing looks. Hopefully between the governmental investigations and the civil lawsuits, the truth will come out. Here at the Injuryboard a number of the writers have been covering the various recalls and the implications. I wanted to take a look at what else we are seeing.

• We are now finding out that Stewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corp. of America was on an industry advisory board that helps the U.S. Department of Agriculture set quality standards for peanuts. The board also is charged with helping set “quality and handling standards” for domestic and imported peanuts.
• The Georgia state health officials recently brought together virtually all of the state’s inspectors of food-processing plants for a meeting in Atlanta to see why they missed this problems on previous inspections.
• Report from 2007 and 2008 cite 12 prior negative findings in the company’s own tests that confirmed salmonella. In each case, the report states, “after the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped in interstate commerce.”
• Past reports had concerns about the cleanliness of the plant, with mold being found on the ceiling and cracks in the wall.

All of these items point to severe neglect and extreme culpability for this horrible incident. With the most likely victims being the young, elderly and the sick, the weakest of our society are being injured it is imperative that everyone learn from this incident and this not happen again.