So, Who's To Blame For The Salmonella Outbreak? PCA, The FDA, The CDC...
We know there's salmonella story fatigue setting in, but this new overview from yesterday's Senate hearing is the best yet as far as piecing together exactly how salmonella-tainted peanut butter made it into our food supply for such a long period of time, and why it took so long to trace it back to a single rotten peanut plant in Georgia. Ultimately the blame lies with Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) for failing to maintain its factory and for not destroying lots that tested positive for salmonella, but both the FDA and the CDC had a role in it, too. One example: the FDA didn't even know the plant produced peanut butter or peanut paste until 2007.
The Senate hearings yesterday were a sad reminder of the problems in our food safety system. Whether it was due to underfunding, understaffing, or bureaucratic mismanagement, the FDA hadn't directly inspected the plant since 2001:
According to the FDA, it last inspected PCA's Blakely plant in 2001, before the company started producing peanut butter. It relied on state inspectors to review the factory in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — and those inspections showed unsanitary practices the FDA later said were "somewhat resolved."
"It was not until 2007, when the plant was inspected under FDA contract by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, that we recognized that in addition to just producing peanuts, they were producing peanut butter and peanut paste," Dr. Steve Sundlof of the agency's Food Safety and Applied Nutrition center told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday.
When federal officials obtained the company's records, they discovered that 12 times in the past two years the company knowingly shipped products that initial tests showed were contaminated with salmonella.
PCA says further tests came back negative, which is why they shipped the products anyway, which seems to be the worst possible safety protocol to follow when it comes to the food supply (but a great one if you're only minding the bottom line, we suppose).
Even if the FDA had known that PCA produced peanut butter and peanut paste, and that the products had at one time tested positive for salmonella, the agency can't legally stop the company from shipping the product.
"The FDA does not have authority to force a manufacturer who's producing contaminated food to recall it," [former FDA associate commissioner William] Hubbard said. "They can beg them to, but they cannot order them to — and that's a flaw in the system."
And finally, the reason it took so long to trace the salmonella outbreak back to PCA was partly due to a lack of infrastructure that would allow doctors to aggregate data on patients in order to see trends. You'd think that by 2008, creating a database that can cross-reference patient variables and look for patterns would be a possibility, but when Senator Harkin asked a CDC official at yesterday's hearing why this wasn't the case, the official responded that there was no money to set up such a system.
FDA officials said they moved as fast as they could given the evidence they had. But Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's food-borne bacterial illness division, agreed the system is overly complicated, prone to delays and underfunded.
"The reality is that we have 50 different states, each with their own authorities, each with their own processes and each with their own budgets," Tauxe said.
Surely the savings that would result from reduced sick leave and fewer hospital bills would justify improvements. Hey Google, maybe you can help? Bill and Melinda Gates? Got any extra foundation money? It would be nice to have an infrastructure that works.
Hubbard said the result is "an embarrassment" to a 21st-century nation — about 5,000 deaths a year from food poisoning, with another 325,000 hospitalized and tens of millions sickened, according to CDC figures.
"We are losing the equivalent of the World Trade Center attacks every eight months to food-borne illness," Hubbard said.
"Poor oversight fueled salmonella outbreak, critics say" [CNN]
RELATED
"Vilsack Says Single Food-Inspection Agency Needed" [Bloomberg]
(Photo: Dano)
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Bureaucracy at its finest. Well done America.
I've complained about this at the state/local/fed level for years, but, what's one voice?
Let's say you get sick, like salmonella sick (not going into it here, ha). Would you go to the doctor? Probably not. Especially if you were better in a few days. The doctors tell us, don't come see me unless you've been sick for a week and can't shake it. Well, that takes a lot from the patient/doctor reporting scenario. Then if you go to the doc, when is the last time you submitted a sample? ha Then, if you did, it's upon the doc to report a positive sample to the health department. Then its up to the health department to report it to the state level. Then state to Fed, etc. You honestly think that would happen? No They each have their own 'criteria'.
So, if the consumer goes to the company instead and reports a problem, the company has to figure out at what point they are going to start an investigation and where to start. How many people call that 1-800 number on the back. I personally called Kellog last fall about the Austin PB crackers tasting 'funny'. The PB tasted like cheese. Yuck, now that I think about it. Did I call back and report a sickness, of course not, how lame is that. But, I did get a coupon for another free 12 pack, ha. Then when all this 'comes out' and hits the media, Kellog had 'no reports', hum. I called.
It is funny that we got a call from Sams Club last night because back in 2007 we purchased a box of Kashi TLC that has now been added to the recall list. Thanks, but, a little late. But, raises the question, seems the tracing 'can' be done. Wonder why all the other grocers haven't called? I use a frequent shopper card, which tells them everything about me.
It's scary and nobody can get their hands around this issue but the Feds. They have to fix this 'whole' scenario.
I like the idea of getting Bill Gates involved, he can call a big meeting and secretly feed everyone that attends food laced with salmonella peanut butter.
The Rand corporation, in conjunction with the reverse vampires, colluded in a fiendish plot to eliminate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
We're through the looking glass, people.
@axiomatic: The funny (well, funny = sad ) part is, just think of how much pot comes into the country on a day-to-day basis that gets consumed with no ill effects.
@mwc5446: One reason I half-jokingly suggested Google was because of this:
Google draws conclusions from search data to predict where the flu is waxing and waning across the U.S., and they say the were able to predict flu trends up to 2 weeks faster than "published CDC reports."
It seems like that's one example of using current data, that's either public or could be washed (of personal identifiers) and made public, to track other public health issues.
Listening to the head of the CDC yesterday on C-Span, I was struck once again by how out of touch too many leaders are when it comes to what can be done with mashing up existing data online. He was about as comfortable with the word "Twitter" as my grandmother would be using the term "FTW."
I'd blame S. bongori and/or S. enterica for the outbreak, but that's just me.
There's GOT to be something in the porkulous bill that would pay for it. Right?
Ok, so let me get this straight. The FCC will come down on you like Thor's hammer with career ending fines if you say a naughty word on TV, but the FDA can't stop the shipping of death foods?
I guess morality lobbyists are more powerful than consumer safety lobbyists.
Will Obama be the first president in history to start a war on peanut butter?
Same amount of deaths in 8 months as the 9/11 attacks. Puts things in perspective doesn't it? We fight terrorism over a few thousand deaths but well over a million people a year die from heart disease, cancer, and drunk driving related accidents. So out of all the things threatening America, apparently killing ourselves is less of a threat than some guy in another country.
A researcher from Harvard Medical school has a database to collect and share information while maintaining privacy. If the software is already written, why isn't the CDC or FDA looking to develop a national standard?
@mwc5446: yesterday at Kroger the receipt printed out a list of products that were recalled that we *may* have purchased. We did. Months ago. All have been consumed. I think it did track based on my Kroger card, as all the items were things that we have bought in the past. Still, might explain why I've had so much "stomach trouble" the last few months...I'd been worrying it was age suddenly catching up on me (32).
Peanut butter is one of my favorite foods. Every time I see one of these articles, I get a bit more pissed off that I have developed an aversion to it now, at least for the time being.
@mwc5446: I can tell you exactly why you were called by Sam's they keep a VERY detailed list of all the items you buy. I know most grocers do if you have their card but I don't know how long they keep it. Sam's keeps if forever. They run tons of metrics based on buying patterns to figure out what should and should not be in their stores. Costco does the same thing. Plus their customer base is much smaller than any major grocery chain.
@ChibaCityCowboy: He could probably walk in with peanut butter spread on a slice of bread, and convince everyone that salmonella can be spread by air - but don't worry, he's got the antidote.
@aguacarbonica: Just find the peanut butter that isn't salmonellafied. I had some jif over the weekend, and it's not as good as the organic or the artisan (yeah that's kind of pretentious) stuff, or the locally made stuff, but it'll do until I figure out whether the good stuff is tainted.
@Garrick Greathouse: But the DEEEEVVVILLL lives in the moving-picture-box and JEEEEEEZZZZZUUUSSS is in your lunchbox.
@pecan pi: If its organic... or local.. and you don't live in Georgia, haven't you already answered your own question?
PCA is ultimately to blame however some blame falls on the regulating bodies. I am a health inspector of restaurants and pools and understand how hard it is to get violations corrected in a timely manner. In the state I work in it is easier to close a swimming pool for being unsafe than it is to close a restaurant (politics). We have 5 inspectors and we are responsible for 800 restaurants (3 inspections a year plus follow ups), 400 swimming pools (monthly inspection), nuisance complaints (average 30 a year), animal bites and rabies investigations (average 150 a year) and body piercing establishment inspections (monthly). Needless to say we are understaffed but focus on our high priority establishments. PCA is required by law to report to the regulating body any change in equipment or a change in production. The FDA should have known that they were producing peanut butter either by PCA informing them or by reviewing the State inspections that were conducted.
The reporting of illness is a whole other can of worms. We as a country are not prepared for a mass outbreak of any kind due to the lack of uniformity in reporting of illness. I as an inspector am not required to follow up on an illness complaint from a restaurant unless a positive stool sample has been reported to our nursing department. Even then it may be up to 3-5 days since the illness started. Needless to say it is very hard to determine the source of the illness unless we have multiple people sick or a sick employee.
I understand these regulatory agencies could have done a betterjob, but the headline for this story really bothers me.
Who is to blame? How about someone in the growth / production / packaging chain? I'm pretty sure that's how the salmonella got in with the peanuty goodness...
@narq: Salmonella is obviously not the same as heart disease, or drunk drivers, or cancer.
According to [www.cdc.gov] foodborne illnesses account for 2,718 deaths, but salmonella only accounts for 31% of that number.
See:
Overall, the specified pathogens cause an estimated 2,718 deaths each year, of which 1,809 are attributable to foodborne transmission (Table 3). Excluding death due to Listeria, Toxoplasma, and hepatitis A virus, the number of deaths due to pathogens that cause acute gastroenteritis is 1,381, of which 931 (67%) are attributable to foodborne transmission. Bacteria account for 72% of deaths associated with foodborne transmission, parasites for 21%, and viruses for 7%. Five pathogens account for over 90% of estimated food-related deaths: Salmonella (31%), Listeria (28%), Toxoplasma (21%), Norwalk-like viruses (7%), Campylobacter (5%), and E. coli O157:H7 (3%).
Yep, they all are, but mostly the company.
There needs to be one department in charge of food safety. There are different departments for the different things grown.
Another problem is funding. The politicians and their contributors get their cut first. The Federal budget should be done by the numbers. Every agency, and committee, etc. would have a rating. The military would be #1. It would be the only #1. They are the ones keeping me free, so I want them to have whatever money they need to keep keeping me free. This would also include the Veterans Administration. I owe it to the ones who lost a part of themselves to keep me free. I want them to live the best life they can for what they did for me.
After #1 is funded, they would go to #2, #3, #4, etc. until the money runs out or all are funded. If the money runs out before the higher numbers get funded, that is it. No more money means nobody else gets any. The rest of us have to live this way. Why shouldn't my government have to live under the same standards? "Don't spend more than you have."
@ChibaCityCowboy: That's not too far from the truth. Back in '96 or so, I attended TechEd - one of those MS conferences that includes meetings and meals and some other stuff. On the first day, every meeting was packed until lunch. Then after lunch, every bathroom was packed, and every meeting was wide open.
We referred to it as "Bill Gates' Revenge".
@axiomatic: Yeah, because having a group of people in charge for 8 years that despise every government agency with the possible exception of the CIA, military, and possibly the FBI/NSA couldn't possibly have ANYTHING to do with lower enforcement. Heck, those industry appointees couldn't possibly have some other agenda, right?
Grow up. The people, in order that should be slapped:
The company and it's officers
The labs for not blowing the whistle
The inspectors
The employees
@Smorgasbord: The fly in your ointment is how to go about deciding what those numbers are. Frankly, I don't think the military should be #1, when they seem to have no problem subcontracting useless expenditure out to all sorts of private industries with nary a bat of an eye.
You think they keep us free, I think education does that. What if I think education or NASA should be #1 on the list? Isn't this essentially what happens when the government creates a budget? They decide what the numbering scheme should be, and the money get allocated accordingly. The higher numbers are the ones that get shafted, which is probably why the FDA is so underfunded.
Frankly, I just think the country needs to get its priorities straightened out and kick out all the blockheads.
@pecan pi: Which... makes it better how? So, yes, there's a diverse number of problems plaguing the food supply. Bacteria, parasites, viruses. That doesn't change the fact that a terrorist attack provokes INSTANT ACTION to strip away the civil liberties of Americans, while an equal number of deaths due to unsanitary private business practices gets no attention at all, and is essentially swept under the rug.
I suppose it's the same reason that a kidnapping case that results in one death gets years of media attention, while street knifings or elderly deaths due to negligence or suicides get at best a brief mention on the local news. Not as flashy.
Let's just hope the terrorists don't get into the food production business.
DOES ANYONE IN COUNTY,CITY,STATE OR FED GOVERMENT CARE THAT THE MAJORITY THAT CONSUMES PEANUT BUTTER ARE CHILDREN?DOES ANYBODY GIVE A DAMN? THEY POISON OUR CHILDREN AND THEY CAN`T BE STOPPED? THESE CORPORATIONS NEED A WAKE UP CALL.WAKE UP CONSUMERS! IT`S TIME TO GET SERIOUS.
I think this stuff gores more than were led to believe .It could be jurisdictional politics .The FDA inspectors don't want to encroach on state juridiction and visa versa .In other words let the other agency finish their investigation .They did though .
One thing I heard recently is that the CEO of that company sits on a peanut quality board FOR THE FDA .How is that not a conflict of interest .
I think the FDA doesn't care about work-life balance. Talk about screwing up a working parent's schedule. What's easier than making the little bugger PB&Js? I write about this at my blog, www.CareerDiva.net. I got my foodie friend to offer some peanut butter sandwich alternatives.
Clearly the FDA is not in the business of protecting people. Like they say, follow the money.
I do wish people would at least place part of the blame for this on the company that released product that had originally tested positive for salmonella. I see a lot of blame for the FDA, and if they had been funded properly, possibly this would have been caught sooner.
But few people want to pay the money(taxes) that fund the regulatory agencies, and then complain when they can't function as they were meant to.
But it is also the companies responsibiltiy to follow regulations.
Releasing product that has failed QC without an iron clad, justifiable reason is just laziness and bad business. I hope this company goes under and stays under because it deserves to.
I do realize nowadays that the word 'company' and 'responsibility' just don't go together.
Uh, I hate to be a Grammar Nazi, but it's CDC, not the CDC. No the. The Centers for Disease Control, CDC.
Is the question mark over the photo to signify "what the F is this?"