Peanut Corp: "Don't Like Salmonella PB? Try Our New Dead Rat And Feathers Flavor"
On Thursday, Texas ordered the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) to recall all products shipped from its plant in Plainview, Texas. The order came after Texas Department of State Health Services discovered dead rats, rat droppings, and bird feathers in a crawl space that was connected to the plant's ventilation system.
As with the PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia, the products were sold to other manufacturers, so apparently our national pb-in-a-jar supply is still safe, if you're feeling brave and peanut hungry.
Officials at the plant, which opened in March 2005 and produced oil-roasted peanuts, dry-roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanut, voluntarily stopped operations Monday night.
"Our understanding is that the bulk of their products go to other food manufacturers," McBride said. "We're not aware of any direct sales to consumers."
Of course, the big difference between the Plainview plant and the Blakely plant is that no sickness or death has been reported so far from any batches of the Texas-produced product. We suspect the investigation was triggered by the sudden spotlight on PCA's lax health practices, and public demand that Texas make sure PCA was doing a better job in the Lone Star State. (Turns out it wasn't.)
What we're wondering now is, how do the employees of the Plainview plant feel knowing that PCA's negligence allowed them to breathe in dead animals and poop every day? They'd better jump on any lawsuits quickly before PCA ceases to exist.
"Dead rodents, excrement in peanut processor lead to recall " [CNN]
"Texas orders peanut recall from company's 2nd plant" [Reuters]
(Photo: stevendepolo)
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Comments:
Has anyone actually published the list of all those items that have been recalled?
The only thing I know that would certainly be on the recall roll is:
1) Peanuts.
That's it, I'm not eating.
Ooh! Make the story more sensational. Rodents could carry Hanta Virus, therefore the employees might have been exposed, and MAYBE some got into the peanut supply! Oh, and the birds could have avian influenza. Double whammy!
I'd rather get salmonella than Hanta virus.
Thank goodness for peanut allergies...
It is my understanding that Peanut Corporation of America has four manufacturing facilities in the US.
If I were the owner and had a major problem at one plant with the FDA involved, I would have had my Plant Managers at the other three facilities going through their plants with a fine-toothed comb to uncover and correct any violations.
They should have known the other three plants would be scrutinized. If they weren't smart enough to completely audit their other three plants (top to bottom) and make corrections over the past few weeks while they still had time, they deserve everything they will get.
In my mind, it seems like they probably invested a lot of time and money into the Manufacturing Departments of their companies, but skimped on the Quality Assurance/Quality Control Departments.
It's all about money. Period.
You know, it's generally accepted that before hostilities commence, war is officially declared. I just hope this time, the South designs a snazzier flag - their last one was a bit... Busy.
Well, I guess it's official: Deep Fried Snickers bars are bad for you.
@Trai_Dep:
the South's confed battle flag looks fine to me. You can't help whiners and ignorant views upon it.
Right now I could be playing Russian Roulette. At this very minute I'm eating peanut butter. I live in Canada, the back says "Made for Sobeye's Mississauga" so, whatever happens, happens.
Doesn't Texas have health inspectors?
Someone needs to bring back F****** Company Stat. This is getting ridiculous.
@MooseOfReason: Sure, but if they're like everyone else in Texas they avoid Plainview if at all possible.
There is absolutely nothing in Plainview. And when I say nothing, I mean less than nothing.
Speaking of Peanut Butter.. I need to buy some today, Kraft it is :)
Yet someone will still try to claim that the free market and self regulation are the solution. (insert facepalm here)
Some good reading here. Perhaps, like in other foods, the FDA thinks that dead rats don't present a health risk?
Hey, if the alternative to breathing poop is joining one of those unions-of-the-devil, I'll breath fecal snow any day. I mean, unions are evil....right? That's what I got from the video at work yesterday.
Any company that is still doing business with them is out of its mind.
How many of you can honestly say that none of your ducts have any dead animals.
I think it's time to become very close friends with that obnoxious guy in my office with the peanut allergy.
@microguy07828: "It's all about money. Period."
How's that working out for them? They're heading Mach 2 toward bankruptcy and civil judgments in the millions.
It's all about stupidity.
Here's my problem with the whole peanut butter scandal (and every other food borne scare recently). Nine people, I believe, have died and around 500 are sick. While that is incredibly tragic and does not excuse the actions of PCA, I have a hard time understanding why PB sales have dropped 25%. If we applied the same rationale to driving, or flying (w/ the continental crash today), we would never travel again. (in 1999, there were 3.4 million injuries from car accidents and 41,611 deaths. This peanut butter scare is, well, peanuts compared to other risks out there)
We, as humans, do a terrible job assessing risks. I think considering the millions upon millions of people who eat PB every day, we're doing ok.
That being said, there is no excuse for the slipshod job PCA did. I can't wait for them to have their day in court so they can hopefully be torn apart. I do think regulation is important and we cannot expect the free market to correct bad behavior by the PCA (for one, there is not complete information available. If PCA products were easily identifiable to the consumer, only those products would be ignored on the shelves, instead of all the other PB products out there).
Many years ago I worked in a food production plant and yes, we saw the occasional rodent and bird that found their way into the production area. It happens, and it will always continue to happen. The difference however is how the company reacts. Where I worked, BB guns were used to remove any live birds from the production area (as soon as it was safe to do so...you don't want a stray BB or bord finding their way into the food), and non-poisionous traps containment traps were used to control the rodent population inside the production area, and poisionous traps were used outside of the production area. If a critter was seen, employees were instructed to notify management and within 5 minutes, someone was on the production floor dealing with the situation.
Company executives should not be fired for health violations - they should be fired for STUPIDITY.
If you know plant A is under scrutiny, and you don't understand that it's about time now to straighten up plant B, C and D, you are too dumb to run a plant. Even if it's a peanut processing plant....
@godawgs7: Here's the thing. Car crashes are visual. everybody thinks they can avoid them, or at least see them coming. That takes the edge off, so to speak. You can't see salmonella, and unseen dangers always creep people out, as there's nothing you can do to avoid them.
@legwork:
"Crazy big list."
Yikes! No kidding. Although, it looks like it's mostly generic, never-heard-of-that before products, but still - their peanuts are in a lot of other products.
Makes me wonder if these other companies are going to sue PCA over this.
@MooseOfReason: Yes but the health inspectors also are the Texas Rangers and they're busy hunting down terrorists and busting illegal immigrants.
@godawgs7: Well, I would say the main reason why people have stopped buying peanut butter is because if you look at that list, who doesn't the PCA sell their nuts to? You have major retailers saying their products are safe one week, and not disclosing that the nuts they use are from PCA, and then next week it's "oh wait, our bad, hit silent recall button".
@Hank Scorpio: You would think that these companies would have put some of their own QA procedures in place also...
"Our understanding is that the bulk of their products go to other food manufacturers," McBride said. "We're not aware of any direct sales to consumers."
And unless these other food manufacturers make food then throw it away for fun, the food they make will eventually end up with consumers.
@morgasco: You would think, but i'm sure a lot of these companies probably didn't test the peanut butter provided to them as they were operating under a good faith assumption that they weren't being sold tainted foods.
@godawgs7: I get what you're saying (I love risk assessment and its flaws), but I don't think that is equivalent, really. People haven't stopped eating; they've just moved to other of the billion sources of food for a while. It's not so much that the risk is so great as the avoidance is so minor. If people know that they're okay as long as they avoid peanut products, they don't have to worry about remembering the incredibly long list of recalled items and brands.
I eat virtually no peanut-based snacks and my peanut butter itself is fine, but yeah, I'm staying away from peanut stuff at restaurants for a bit, because I have no idea where they got their peanuts or even where they should have gotten their peanuts. It's just easier to get something else.
@MooseOfReason: It was my understanding that, while yes, we do have Health Inspectors in Texas, that these plants are not required to get inspected on a routine schedule.
I think restaurants are required to get inspected once a month or so, were as this plant was only required once a year? If at all?
@bohemian: Yep, I could see that. Someone is going to say that if there were no government controls that the companies would work harder! to prevent this.
As if the companies have anything on their minds other then money.
@winstonthorne: Yes, but you can smell that disgusting rotting dead animal smell and get it fixed.
But when you have rotting animal, feces infested air ducts flowing into a food processing work room.... well... that is just flat out disgusting and clearly a health hazard.
I'm thinking we should all write letters to our favorite manufactures demanding that they no longer do business with the Peanut Butter Corporation of American until the end of time.
Consumerist had an article not long ago about how Consumerists stopped buying ANY peanut butter products, not just the ones affected by the salmonella outbreak.
I now think consumers are justified in their decision.
@jc364: Typo, that should read "about how consumers stopped buying..."
Although I'm sure many Consumerist readers stopped buying peanut butter products as well.
If we would fund the agency that inspects these plants properly and make sure that money is spent wisely on new inspectors that do there job we would all be better off.
@jc364: Why?
Not that I'm complaining, maybe Jif will be cheaper, but this sounds a like not buying one type of car because another is potentially unsafe.
So should we start tagging these posts "Peanut Poison Train"?
Fine tooth comb inspection is what a company gets when its owners take the fifth in front of congressional hearings. The bureaucracy will let you slide to a certain point but if you get caught then all hell breaks loose...
@bohemian: I'm one of those free market cynics, but please, there's no need to try and start a flame war. The only people that deserve to be insulted are the people directly responsible for this.
Isn't there some way to put this awful company out of business for good?